Another Day
by lady-demacabre
Summary: Buffy jumps at the end of The Gift, but lands... in the Tardis? And then things get really interesting. Better summary in profile. Buffy Season 5, DrWho Series 4, Torchwood Series 2.
1. What

_Once I swore to stay away from crossovers. And then I watched the videos for and started reading Life Past Death by jezaeiri on Twisting the Hellmouth. Now I'm addicted and drowning in ideas of my own. The story starts out with Buffy more in the Doctor Who storylines in Series 4, but will get to Torchwood eventually.  
_

* * *

"The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me."

Buffy turned from Dawn's teary face and ran. Taking in the last look at the sunrise she leapt and fell into the light.

By the time Dawn made it down to the bottom of the tower, everyone had gathered and was looking around to see what had happened. They all looked to her. Giles and Xander looked like they were asking her where Buffy was, but Giles face began to change as he took everything in. Spike had figured it out immediately, and was hunched over crying and avoiding the deadly rays shining from the sun in full force now. Willow was letting out a series of disbelieving screaming sobs as the realisation hit her. It wasn't long before all of them knew and were grieving.

Buffy was gone… she had not only died to save them all, but her body had fallen through the portal and was gone.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"So, now that we've freed the Ood, any other slaves to free, or should we just go blow something else up?"

The Doctor looked over the console to his current companion, Donna Noble. "Oi! I thought we might try something different this time. How about a trip to the third moon of Alos where the skies are deep green and the twin moons rise over the yellow sea?"

"Sounds like my kind of holiday," Donna answered. "Is the sea really yellow?"

"Oh yes!" He had on his huge almost childlike grin as he flipped a lever.

One would think that after travelling a while in the Tardis the passengers would be prepared for a violent lurch each time the Doctor flips that lever. One would think that, but as always the two were hurled about the box with looks of complete surprise at the sudden shake. The centre console started popping and shooting off sparks, and the whole of the ship flared with a white light so bright it almost had a blue tint.

The light disappeared as quickly as it came; the Tardis came to a standstill. The Doctor gripped the side of the console and slowly pulled himself up. He looked at the controls to make sure they were safe and to see if he could tell what happened. He looked around for Donna and was about to call out to her when he spotted a blonde girl in a white jumper lying face first on the Tardis floor.

"What?"

"I'm all right!" he heard Donna call.

He ignored it, still stunned that someone could have come on board mid flight. "What?" he repeated, unable to say anything else while his clever brain ran through all possible ways that she could have come on board but was finding nothing.

"I said I'm… oh my god!" Donna had gotten up and noticed the girl.

"What?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

(Doctor Who Opening Credits)

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"Never mind 'what'," Donna said rushing over to the girl and rolling the body over. "We should help her? Who is she?"

When the Doctor saw the face he let out a breath that he had been holding. Though blonde, she wasn't Rose. One impossible thing struck from the list. Donna checked the pockets of the girl's jeans.

"She doesn't have an ID. Who is she?"

The blonde girl started to stir, so the Doctor helped Donna move her to the seats and propped her up there. The Doctor then turned back to the consoles to run a few scans and see just what happened, mumbling that it was all completely impossible.

"Well, what about me, Doctor?" Donna asked. "Is it those huey particles again?"

"Huon. No, I'm not getting any huon readings. Hello! What's…" the Doctor continued to mumble and think out loud while Donna turned her attention back to the girl.

The girl regained consciousness with a jolt and a gasp and was immediately alert. Donna had a comforting but firm hold on the girl's shoulder to keep her still.

"It's all right. You're safe… in the Tardis. I'm Donna."

"What? Is this another dimension? Did it work? Is Dawn safe? What happened?"

While the girl was asking questions, the Doctor had pulled out the sonic screwdriver and his stethoscope. He was waving the screwdriver around her, both her and Donna looking like they'd just love to swat the thing out of his hand. When he was about to check her with the stethoscope she pushed him roughly away, with far more force than one of her size should have.

"Oi!" the Doctor shouted.

"It's all right," Donna said. "He's the Doctor. We're just trying to help."

"Who are you? Where am I?" If the girl hadn't been suddenly teleported into the Tardis Donna would have been really annoyed at having to repeat herself.

"I'm Donna, Donna Noble, and that's the Doctor. You're in the Tardis. You're safe."

"The huh now?" The girl was definitely American.

"Blimey, she's just like you," the Doctor said with a roll of his eyes towards Donna.

"Oi! Watch it Spaceman!"

"Spaceman?" the girl asked.

The Doctor winced. "Yeah, it's… it's gonna take a while to explain. But like Donna said, I'm the Doctor, and you've just been pulled into the Tardis, my… spaceship."

The girl stared at him with a disbelieving expression and open mouth. "Get out!"

"It seems the Tardis passed through a spatio-temporal singularity," he continued while glancing over at the screen. "I may have accidently forgotten to put up the Tardis shields, so the singularity connected with the time vortex, and BAM! we've got a visitor. Now the question is… how did you end up in a spatio-temporal singularity that had it not closed would have grown large enough to swallow the entire universe?" By this time he had turned and looked the girl squarely in the eye.

"I jumped," she answered simply.

"You _jumped_?" the Doctor repeated.

"Doctor, maybe this can wait," Donna interrupted. "I mean, is she all right and everything? And what's your name, sweetheart?"

"I'm fine. Well, my name's not actually _fine_. It's Buffy. And you're Donna, and you're…" She turned to the Doctor. "Doctor _who_?"

"Just _the_ Doctor."

"You get used to him," Donna said.

"But what kind of name is _the_ Doctor?"

"What kind of name is Buffy?" he asked right back. He was being rude again.

"Hey! My mom gave me that name."

"And where was she from? What year?"

"What?"

"I think he more wants to know where and when _you_ are from," Donna put in.

"Is the when important?" Buffy asked.

"When you're with him, yeah," Donna said. "He travels through time _and_ space… and runs a lot."

"Ok, I'm from Sunnydale, California. 2001."

The Doctor frowned. "Then how does a seemingly normal young woman from 2001 have ten times the strength of a healthy human male?"

She took a moment to answer. "I'm the Slayer."

"And what does that mean?" he asked.

"Vampire Slayer? The Chosen One? She who hangs out in graveyards? You travel in time and space and you've never heard of the Slayer?"

The Doctor looked liked he was searching his memory. "I thought that was just a myth."

"Nope."

"Wait, Doctor," Donna said. "Are you telling me there are really vampires?"

"Plasmavores, but yes. Buffy, maybe you should explain why you jumped."

"Vampires are _real_?" Donna cut in again. "So could we go and meet Dracula? Don't tell me we could meet Dracula!"

"No," Buffy said. "I slayed him."

"You _slayed_ Dracula?" It was a typical Donna-attitude infused question, her head rolled as she stretched out the word 'slayed'.

"Yeah."

"How can there be _vampires_? Are they alien, Doctor?"

"No, of course not. Well… I say of course not, but if you consider that it was originally a plasmavore that crashed to earth, suffered some mutation due to the radiation of its vessel, and then began infecting humans, you might consider them fundamentally to be aliens."

"Does he talk like this often?" Buffy asked Donna.

"Oh yes," she replied.

"But you're really saying vampires are aliens?" Buffy looked incredulously at him. "They're demons. One type of many different demons. And if they're aliens then why do crosses hurt them?"

"I'm not sure," the Doctor mumbled running a hand through his hair. "But aliens, demons, races from different dimensions, it's all the same in the end. But Buffy… you jumped. What on to?"

"There was this hell god, Glory. She… she used… she opened a portal to return to her own hell dimension, but if it wasn't closed then all the dimensions would destroy each other. I had to close it."

"By jumping into it?" the Doctor asked.

"I had to. It was the only way."

The Doctor looked as if he knew there had to more to it than that, but he let it stand.

"Was that portal what we ran into?" Donna asked to make sure she understood what was going on.

"Yes, but that still doesn't explain…" the Doctor trailed off while staring at Buffy. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"What?"

"What exactly dragged you into the Tardis," he finished. "No matter how the singularity was formed or closed, it really shouldn't have done that."

"Does it really matter?" Buffy asked. "Can't you just take me home? They must all think I'm dead."

"Sure," the Doctor nodded. "If that's what you want."

He turned to the controls and started pushing buttons, flipping levers, and spinning the round thingy. The Tardis engines started to sound, the centre column moving up and down, but then with a bump it all went silent. While the Doctor ran around the console to check the screen, the engines started again and the three passengers were thrown to the floor.

"Behave!" the Doctor shouted to his ship as he grabbed hold of the side of the controls and tried to regain control over them, grabbing the mallet and hitting a panel, turning a knob, pulling a lever.

"Doctor!" Donna shouted. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. I don't know where we're going."

* * *

_Please let me know what you think! I love reviews and they keep my muses happy and working hard._


	2. Intergalatic Mobsters

_This week for me is really busy, but since I already had this chapter written I thought I'd just go ahead and post it. Especially as this chapter picks up directly where the last left off. There is a bit more of a break between this and the next.

* * *

_

"What do you mean you don't know where we're going?" Donna shouted.

Wherever the Tardis was going, it didn't take long to get there. Soon after suddenly taking off with its usual violent movements the ship was still.

"Is it always like this?" Buffy asked Donna.

"Yeah."

"Doctor, can you take me home?" Buffy asked.

He ran his hand through his hair. "No." He looked upset as he fondled some of the controls and looked for some explanation of what happened. "I put in the coordinates, but she just went somewhere else. But where?"

"But _why_?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know. Oh… unless… the singularity's point of origin propagating a transverse spherical wave propels objects in the time vortex adversely from their coordinates. Yes! That's it!"

"Huh?" was Buffy's response.

"It's like… waves on the ocean pushing a toy boat to shore. That portal you jumped onto has caused waves in time to push out in all directions making time travel to that time and destination impossible."

"So I can't go home?"

"I could take you close, but who knows how close in tine it will be. It could be months after you left, a year or two tops."

The frown on his face brightened into an eager grin as he ran to pick up his coat and bounce over to the door. "So while you're here why not make the most of it? So many planets out there, so many things to see. You're going to love this, Buffy. Not knowing where or when might be right out that door. Worlds of possibilities just a step away. Gaw! What a feeling!"

"Like swallowing a hamster," Donna said just loud enough for Buffy to hear as they followed him out of the Tardis.

Buffy wanted to protest, to demand he take her home. To hell with his ridiculous alien yet somehow very British explanations. But then again… what could one adventure away from Sunnyhell hurt?

She turned around to look at the Tardis. It was a small blue box with "police" written on it. A small box. Her chin practically hit the floor.

"It's bigger on the inside," the Doctor called over his shoulder. Buffy shut her mouth, decided to question it later, and jogged a few steps to catch up with Donna and the Doctor.

"Has this happened before?" Donna was asking the Doctor, undoubtedly about the Tardis going somewhere on its own.

"Yes… not long ago actually. And forever ago. But that was… well, I had this friend, and he… long story. Very him. Ended up at the end of the universe."

"So where are we? Not the end of the universe?" Donna had a hopeful tone.

"Nawh! This…" He spun around to absorb the surroundings. Connecting hallways that looked like enormous metal tubes held several levels of shop fronts and stalls. Catwalks overhead connected the upper level shops. All sorts of people and aliens were walking around from shop to shop. There was the faint sound of engines underneath the babble of voices. "This is a 63rd century space station. Retail class."

"63rd century?" Buffy had wide eyes. The shock then melted into glee. "Is this a mall from the future?"

"Not from," the Doctor said. "You're in your future now. And yes, basically I think you could call this a mall."

"The future thing takes a bit of getting used to," Donna said, but Buffy wasn't really listening.

"Oh! Shoes!" She started wandering towards the shoes, Donna quickly following.

The Doctor sighed, rolled his eyes, and pulled out his sonic screwdriver while looking for some sort of ATM.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

After a few hours of shopping with Donna and the Doctor (safely stowing the purchases in the Tardis) the three went to lunch. But all the way there Buffy's slayer senses told her they were being watched. It continued as they left what seemed to be a café and walked around just to enjoy the place. When they rounded a corner, Buffy stopped and leaned against the wall to wait for the one following them. Using slayer strength and speed she grabbed the person just as the Doctor and Donna were turning around to see where she had gone.

In her hands was one of the ugliest things she had come across. It was no bigger than a small child but had sharp teeth, horridly sweet breath, a flattened nose, and a spotted head that split into three curling horn thingies. If she didn't remember that she was in the 63rd century on a space station galaxies away from earth then she would have thought it was a demon. It struggled against her, but she was easily able to hold it.

"Oi! Put that graske down!" the Doctor shouted as he and Donna made their way back to her.

"It was following us," Buffy said. "Is there any reason why I can't kill it?"

The Doctor moved his head back and forth as if considering it, but decided against that. "Graskes may not be the best of creatures, but you can't just go around grabbing people because they followed us."

"That's a change," Donna said.

"Oi!" the Doctor shot back. He turned back to Buffy. "Put him down, but don't let him go. What are you up to?" he asked the graske.

"Nothing. Just minding my business."

"Oh no, because a graske means trouble. What is it this time, eh?"

"But if it's trouble, can't I just kill it?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, it's Leela all over again. No!"

"No! Don't kill me," the graske said.

"Then tell me _why_ you were _following_ us?"

The graske twitched its head from side to side, looking around the area for an escape. But Buffy's grip only tightened further. He suddenly moved his arm. The Doctor was reaching for his sonic screwdriver, expecting to have to use it to pull the graske back from where it wanted to teleport to, but the button the graske pushed on his wrist strap wasn't a teleport. Nothing happened.

"What did you just do?" the Doctor demanded.

"Sir, you need and your friends need to come with us."

The three travellers turned. Behind them were four tall men in security uniforms. Buffy knew she could fight them off; they were men and not vampires after all. But men—security men—carried guns. That was an element she didn't like to tangle with—fangs, yes; guns, no. So she waited for the Doctor to make the first move.

"All right, but I'll want answers," the Doctor said giving a slight shrug of surrender.

Two of the guards led the way while the other two followed behind. They were quickly taken from the main walks through a door to the hidden inner hallways. Buffy tried using her slayer skills as best she could to remember how to get back out again, but there were so many twists and turns and identical looking halls that she was soon lost. Soon they came to a sort of waiting room lounge but didn't stop. They were taken straight through to the chief's office.

The automatic glass door whooshed opened just like the doors on Star Trek. Buffy got a glimpse of the name written on the door: Antonio Buonarroti.

The office looked like it could have been any millionaire's office in her own time. Very Donald Trump. Soft carpets, very geometric décor, and a large desk made of a very shiny wood. Behind the desk was a large chair, its back to them. Behind the chair were dozens of screens showing images of different locations around the space station. Buffy noticed that one of the screens was focused on the Tardis.

The chair turned and a good looking man with dark hair smiled at them.

"So you are the mysterious travellers from the blue box," he said. He was still smiling, a sly sort of smile that didn't reach the eyes.

"Yup," the Doctor said nonchalantly. "That's us."

"And _all_ of you were in that box?" The man raised an eyebrow, smile still fixed in place.

"Yeah," the Doctor dragged out the word as if it were no big deal.

"Lucky."

"Well…" The Doctor's head seemed to incline towards Donna.

"Oi!" she said to him, but then turned her attention to the boss in the chair. "So, Mr. Buonarroti is it?"

"Please, call me Tony."

"Thank you, _Tony_. Could you tell us why you've brought us 'ere? Have we done something wrong?"

"No, not at all, beautiful lady. Nothing wrong. I was just terribly curious. That's a curious travelling box you've got to just appear out of thin air. I wanted to see just who had come aboard my space station and what their intentions were. But now I've seen that you were just enjoying the shopping. I'm sorry if the graske disturbed you. I hope you enjoyed your time here, but I think it's time you leave. I'll have my men here take you back to your box and see you on your way."

The Doctor smiled at Tony and nodded. Buffy noticed that both men were thinking many things that were left unsaid. For the first time in her life, she also kept her thoughts to herself and stayed silent as well.

As they turned to the door, the Doctor shot a pointed glance at Buffy with the slightest nod of his head. They let the guards start to walk them out, but a few corners later the Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and rendered the blasters useless while Buffy used her slayer speed to knock all the men unconscious.

"What's the sitch?" Buffy asked the Doctor in full slayer mode. He was holding his screwdriver over a computer screen on one of the hall walls.

Donna interrupted first. "That chap was a bit dodgy, wasn't he? All that smiling and everything."

"Exactly!" said the Doctor. "And he saw the Tardis. Normally the perception filter diverts people's attention from the Tardis; they don't really notice it's there."

"But he noticed!" Donna jumped in, happy to come to the conclusion.

"And that means he's quite the observer," the Doctor continued. "He's looking for things out of place, meaning…" He turned to Buffy.

"If he's looking that hard at other people he's trying to hide something. And the armed guard to escort us out… bit mafia isn't it?"

"You're brilliant!" the Doctor exclaimed. Pulling out his glasses he scanned the files on the screen. "Antonio Buonarroti, member of the Buonarroti Syndicate."

"The what?" Donna asked.

"Intergalactic mobsters. And like any accomplished mobsters there is never any evidence linking their crimes back to them. Until now!" He concentrated the screwdriver once more on the screen for a few moments until the screen popped and sparked. Buffy could hear more guards approaching. "Allons-y!"

Then the running started. While Buffy hadn't kept track of the way through the back corridors, the Doctor and his brilliant alien brain had. They were soon back out in the greater mall section and walking briskly back to the Tardis. Once inside, the Doctor threw down his coat and took the screwdriver to the Tardis controls and started messing about with the buttons and levers.

"So what are you going to do, Doctor?" asked Donna. "You aren't going to blow up the whole space station?"

"Aren't we worried about the guards getting in through the doors?" Buffy asked.

The Doctor sniffed. "Nah, they don't have anything strong enough. And no, I won't be blowing up the space station." He smiled his _I'm-a-genius_ smile. "While hacking into the files I found evidence of the Buonarroti's involvement in the exploitation and enslavement of a couple planets, so I just anonymously sent the information the police. You take down one part of a mob they just pop up somewhere else. This should allow them to arrest the entire group."

"There's space police too?" Buffy asked. But then she was smiling with the Doctor.

"Let them do the cleanup," Donna mused. "I like it."

"So ladies, where to next?"

* * *

_Normally I'll try to post a chapter a week if I can get them written that fast. It all depends on my muses… and my homework. Reviews keep things going smoothly, so go ahead and hit that button right below and leave just a few words about what you think of the story. _


	3. Tudors and Tentacles

_I'm very sorry that this chapter took so long to post. The computer it was on decided to go "kaplooey" and took forever to deal with. Luckily I was just recently able to get access to all the files again. So here it is.  
_

* * *

Though Buffy promised herself just one adventure with the Doctor and then she would return to Sunnydale, the promise was quickly broken. It was addicting not having to be in charge anymore. She was the strength to the Doctor's incredible brains and Donna's super-temp. It was almost like when Giles was more in control back in high school, but much, much better because the problems were now solved without her killing something. The general lack of dusty ends around her was rather liberating. And yet she was still helping people, still saving the day… and seeing some of the most amazing things in the universe.

"So Buffy," the Doctor was saying as he stood at the Tardis controls. "You've been to the future, seen all sorts of planets, how do you fancy taking a look at the past on your own planet now?"

"Just as long as it's not another 'Ancient Rome' incident," Donna said.

"Why? What happened?" Buffy asked. She still liked whenever Donna would start talking about what she and the Doctor did before Buffy's arrival. Donna hadn't been with the Doctor long, so there wasn't much to tell, but her story telling was highly entertaining.

"He says it's Ancient Rome and then we see this big mountain. Only it's not a mountain. It's a _volcano_. It wasn't Rome; it was _Pompeii_… right before the volcano erupted."

"Yeah, let's not do that," Buffy said to the currently frowning Doctor. He started pulling and punching the controls until they were thrown about by the violent lurches of the travelling Tardis.

When it stopped the Doctor bounded to the door while pulling on his coat, and then he poked his head out the door just to avoid the embarrassment of another Pompeii.

"Ladies, I think you'll need to change your clothes."

"What sort of an outfit will we need?" Buffy asked.

"Well…" he dragged out slowly and added a bit of a sniff at the end. "I think we've just landed in the court of Henry VIII."

An hour later, garbed in Renaissance Italy's finest, the ladies joined the Doctor at the door. He was leaning on the railings, still in his usual suit and coat.

"Aren't you going to change?" Buffy asked.

"I changed my tie," he said while adjusting said tie.

Buffy and Donna rolled their eyes and followed him out of the Tardis. The blue police box was partially concealed by a hedge than ran along a large lawn. Through an opening in the hedge they could see a court party on the other side. Tall hedges encircled the area of fountains and large patches of lawn. Courtiers were coming and going, walking about and greeting others, doing all they could to get an edge over others in the never ending game of political power. Through openings in the hedges there were people playing games or having archery contests.

While Donna and Buffy stood peering round the corner of the large shrubbery to just take in the whole sight, the Doctor walked past and straight into the space with his usual confident yet casual swagger, hands in his pockets, head looking around, and slight smile on his face. Buffy and Donna followed, trying their best to mimic the movements of the other female courtiers.

"So what's out cover story?" Buffy asked. She knew the Doctor would just sort of wing it, but Buffy wanted the security of a plan if this was the court of a man who had a habit of beheading people—she knew that much of history. "If you're going to be flashing the psychic paper then I want to know who we are."

"Italians, I should think," the Doctor replied.

"These people aren't at war with the Italians, are they?" Donna asked.

"No… probably the one country right now that they definitely aren't fighting. Although… depending on the date, they might not be all that friendly with the Pope."

"Because he wants to divorce his wife," Donna said proudly.

Buffy rolled her eyes. Donna loved when she knew more than Buffy. Donna often referred to herself as just a nobody, especially when put against the Doctor's brains and Buffy's super strength. But she had her moments of brilliance when it came to her super-temp abilities, and it wasn't hard for her to know more than Buffy. History and British references were not things Buffy excelled in. Just ask Giles.

"So we're Italians," Buffy said to bring it back to her original point. "The ladies Donna and Buffy from Rome and their cousin…"

"Sir Doctor of Tardis," the Doctor filled in.

"And you ask what kind of a name is Buffy?" the slayer demanded.

"Oi! Queen Victoria herself knighted me."

"No way!" Donna said. "You've met _the_ Queen Victoria? I bet she wasn't amused."

"Anyways…" the Doctor drawled his usual 'can we please change the subject' drawl. "Shall we go mix with the locals?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

It wasn't long before the King himself noticed the newcomers and was asking his trusted friends to find out who they were. And it was even less time before he decided to meet them for himself. His friend Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, first went to make their acquaintance, and then Henry was able to follow and be introduced to them.

"Charles, you must introduce me to these new courtiers," Henry said as he approached his friend. "I don't think we need all the ceremony of formal introductions."

"Your majesty," Brandon started, "may I introduce Sir Doctor of Tardis and his cousins, the Lady Donna and the Lady Buffy. Sir Doctor, ladies, His Majesty King Henry of England, Ireland and France."

"Tardis?" Henry asked. "I'm not sure I've heard of it."

"It's a very small place, your majesty," the Doctor said. Buffy elbowed him. He added, "In Italy."

"It doesn't sound very Italian. And for a matter of fact, nor do you Sir… _Doctor_." The last word trailed off and sounded almost like a question.

"It's a very small island just next to Italy. And we travel. Pick up different accents along the way. It makes blending in easier. Don't get noticed."

"I can't imagine with two such lovely cousins you wouldn't be noticed." Henry was then called away by another noble. Brandon followed.

"Wow," Buffy said while letting out the breath she had been holding. "He's actually a lot more attractive than I expected."

"Eh," said Donna, her head tilted to one side. "He's no Jonathan Rhys Meyers."

"Who?" Buffy asked.

"Oi, you two," the Doctor said. "We are here to see history… not blog about movie actors."

"Did I ever mention I've never been good at history?" said Buffy. "And that might just be one hell of an understatement."

"Then this is the perfect opportunity to learn," the Doctor answered back. "Nothing like living it! So… allons-y!"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The three "Italian" travellers, walked around the halls of the court. It had begun to look like rain, so everyone had moved inside. But the rain didn't last long, so the king decided that since it wasn't too muddy they'd take advantage of the damp ground and have a jousting tournament that afternoon. Now it was just a matter of waiting for it all to be set up.

"Doctor," Buffy said suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"Do you see that shadow?"

"What shadow?"

"The one that looks like a tentacle creeping around that dark corner over there?"

"Ah, that shadow. That's not supposed to be here."

"Do you know what it is?" Donna asked.

"Well," he said and sniffed the air. "Between the tentacle and the smell, I'd say it's a Koosbanian shape stealer."

"Shape _stealer_?" Donna repeated.

"Sucks the essence out of a person and inhabits their body. They feed off of a person's power, usually political power over others, so they target heads of state and military leaders. Then they become some of the worst tyrants in history."

"So you're saying this has happened before?" Donna looked horrified.

"You don't think Hitler was human, do you? Just a vegetarian painter like him, of course he was killed and replaced by a Koosbanian shape stealer. This one must be after King Henry—all that power changing the church, becoming supreme leader in all things temporal and spiritual. It'd be a right feast for him."

"So what do we do?" Donna demanded.

The Doctor looked at Buffy.

"I kill it?" she suggested tentatively.

"For once, yes. But first we have to catch it. Come on!"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Henry and his intimate entourage strode down the walk to meet the queen at the jousting stands before entering and taking their seats together. As he passed the queen's ladies his eyes lingered on Mistress Anne Boleyn.

She was exquisite. Each time he saw her it only renewed his determination to have her—he would do whatever it took.

He smiled at Catherine and took her hand. Together they entered the royal stand and took their seats. Courtiers, officials, and friends filled in the seats around them. With a nod of his head, Henry signalled for the joust to begin and waited for the first two knights to take their places.

The two knights thundered down the lanes and crashed lanced against shield. The clang of metal and crack of wood could just be heard above the noise of the cheering crowd. Eyes were riveted to the knights in an effort to see which knight gave the harder hit.

No one noticed the tentacles creeping behind the royal stall. Or that one of the squires had misplaced two swords and an axe.

The first two knights finished, and two more took the challenge on the field. Henry pounded his hand on the arm of his seat. He stole a glance at Mistress Anne. Her eyes were fixed on the field. He longed for them to be fixed on him. He tried to think of what types of precious stones would suit her best.

A tentacle flailed behind the royal seats as it was hit by a sword. Another sword swung towards it again. The crowd watched the two knights gallop down the lanes and waited for the collision. It didn't disappoint them; one knight popped out of the saddle and crashed to the ground. They were so focused on the bleeding fallen knight that they didn't see a blonde lady crash to the ground beyond the stalls. Nor did they see her jump back up and run to a tentacle with her sword raised. They were busy watching the knight being taken from the field by two squires.

The joust continued, the king himself taking the field at one point. It was then that a group of three dragged a lifeless, gigantic octopus away from the joust and down to the Thames unnoticed. After the king there was only one more match, and then all the spectators exited the stalls.

The king noticed the three new Italians and approached them. "Ladies, Sir Doctor, how did you enjoy the joust? Was it better than the jousts in your country?"

"Oh, you know," the Doctor said with a huge yet somehow tired grin. "It seems to be the same wherever we go. But this was one of the most exhilarating."

"It certainly took my breath away," Donna said, just barely controlling her panting.

"So you enjoyed it?" Henry looked proud.

"Very much, your majesty," the Doctor said.

The men both smiled, and Henry made his way towards other nobles making sure to pass close to Anne Boleyn. The three slipped away as best they could and walked back to the Tardis.

"Won't this change history?" Buffy asked. "I always thought Henry the Eighth was a tyrant?"

"Nah!" the Doctor said as he opened the Tardis door and waited for the women to enter first. "Didn't you see the way he was looking at Anne Boleyn? He'll do what history says."

"So a human can be a tyrant just as much as an alien," Donna observed.

"Yeah," the Doctor agreed with a tiny bit of reluctance.

* * *

_Please click the little button just below and take a moment to let me know what you think. Reviews/reactions make me and my muses happy._


	4. Not Another Initiative

_Another chapter, woohoo! Pretty much sticks to the episode... well, you'll see.  
_

* * *

"So it's bigger on the inside," Buffy said.

The Doctor looked at her disapprovingly. "Buffy, you've been here how long, and you still question the little things?"

"Not so little is the point," Buffy shot back. "And you've got two hearts."

"Yes, thank you." He was at the controls when Donna spoke.

"Could I have a go?"

"Pardon?" the Doctor asked. Then realisation dawned on him. "No, no… just no."

"Oh, go on, Doctor," Buffy encouraged. Both women stared him down.

His head went from side to side as he relented. "Oh… all right."

He started showing Donna how to work the controls and went over basics to get her started. Then he stood back and hovered behind her nervously.

"I can't believe I'm doing this!" Donna said happily.

"No, neither can I." The Doctor still sounded nervous as he watched her. "Oh, careful!"

He pushed past her to whack the panel with the mallet and fiddle with another lever. Surprisingly he stepped aside again for Donna to handle it.

"Left hand down!" he shouted. "Left hand down!"

Buffy held on as the Tardis lurched.

"Getting a bit too close to the eighties," the Doctor said.

"What am I gonna to do?" Donna demanded sarcastically. "Put a dent in 'em?"

"Well, someone did," the Doctor said.

Then there was the distinct, yet foreign to the Tardis, sound of a ringing phone.

"Is that a phone?" Buffy asked as the Doctor moved from his spot behind Donna to the source of the ringing.

"You've got a mobile?" Donna asked with shock. "Since when?"

"It's not mine," the Doctor said gravely. He answered the phone and sat down slowly. "Hello?"

"Doctor, it's Martha," the voice on the phone said. "And I'm bringing you back to Earth!"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The Doctor left the Tardis first. Donna hung back and waited for the right time to step out. Buffy was sitting on the chair by the console. Donna had briefly explained what she knew about Martha from the Doctor while the man himself took over the controls. So Buffy knew that they were about to meet a woman who had not only travelled with the Doctor, but who had also had a bit of a crush on him. She could see why someone might fall for the strange yet wonderful alien, but he was too tweedy for Buffy's tastes.

"Are you coming, Buffy?" Donna asked.

"Sure." They stepped out of the Tardis and saw the two talking about her family.

"Right," Martha said. "Should have known. Didn't take you long to replace me then. And with _two_."

The Doctor rolled his head. "Now, don't start fighting. Martha, Donna and Buffy. Donna and Buffy, Martha. Please don't fight, can't bear fighting."

"You wish," Donna said with a bit of pure Donna Noble sass.

"I never would have guessed," Buffy said to him with a pointed look while Donna shook Martha's hand. He looked even more uncomfortable and on guard. Buffy let Donna have a moment with Martha since really Donna knew more about the former time traveller than the slayer did.

"He talks about you all the time," Donna was saying.

"I dread to think," Martha said.

"No, no, no. No. He says nice things. Good things. Nice things. Really... good things."

"Oh my god, he's told you everything." Martha raised a hand and looked a bit embarrassed.

"Didn't take long to get over it though. Who's the lucky man?"

The Doctor turned from wary to confused. "What man? Lucky what?"

"She's engaged, you prawn," Donna said, probably delighted in taking another opportunity to be smarter than the alien genius.

Buffy grinned and pointed to Martha's left hand, now out and clearly showing the ring. Sometimes a good teasing was perfect for taking him down a few pegs into reality as they knew it.

"Really, who to?" the Doctor sounded a bit stunned… perhaps a bit jealous.

"Tom. That Tom Milligan. He's in pediatrics. Working out in Africa right now, and yes, I know. I've got a doctor who disappears off to distant places. Tell me about it."

"Is he skinny?" Donna asked.

Buffy watched the Doctor preen a bit and just waited for Donna to knock him down again. The way Donna could do that was one of the most entertaining things in the Tardis.

"No," Martha said. "He's sort of… strong."

Donna gestured to the Doctor, who was back to looking on guard, but more for himself than an approaching catfight. "_He_ is too skinny for words! You give him a hug, you get a papercut!"

There it was. All the women had a laugh while the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I'd rather you were fighting," he said.

"Speaking of which…" Martha's tone turned serious. She held up her walkie-talkie and answered the voice coming through. "This is Dr. Jones. Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go. I repeat, this is a go!"

They all left the alley and watched as trucks and soldiers ran through towards a large factory building. Noticing the military uniforms, Buffy immediately was on edge. The last thing she wanted was to come face to face with another Initiative, but it looked like last was now coming first.

"What are you searching for?" the Doctor demanded while Martha took a breath from giving orders over the walkie-talkie.

"Illegal aliens," Martha answered curtly.

The noise of soldiers and amplified orders filled the area. Martha went running to continue her duties leaving Donna asking the Doctor, "Is that what you did to her? Turned her into a soldier?"

The Doctor looked uneasy. Then Donna noticed that Buffy was standing stiffly.

"Are you all right?" she asked kindly. The Doctor turned from looking at the operations.

"Buffy?" he asked.

"Yeah," Buffy said giving her head a bit of a shake. "I don't trust government operations like this. I've seen what they can do."

Buffy left so much unsaid in that statement, but the Doctor looked like he understood. He said, "Just stay close. We'll be fine."

Martha returned. The Doctor looked at her again, this time noticing the UNIT card. "And you're qualified now? You're a proper doctor."

She inclined her head slightly. "UNIT rushed it through given my experience in the field. Here we go. We're establishing a field base on site. They're dying to meet you."

"Wish I could say the same," the Doctor muttered. Buffy gave a small sound of agreement. The Doctor took her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze before they entered the bus that was serving as the UNIT field base. Once inside they approached a man that from his stance and manner Buffy could tell was the ranking officer of the operation.

"Operation Blue Sky complete, sir," Martha said. "Thanks for letting me take the lead. And, this is the Doctor. Doctor, Colonel Mace."

The colonel saluted. "Sir!"

"Oh, don't salute," the Doctor grumbled.

"Well, it's an honour, sir," continued the colonel, only slightly ruffled. "I've read all the files on you and, technically speaking, you're still on staff. You never resigned."

"You worked for them?" Buffy asked, but filled with enough attitude to show her disapproval and distrust.

"Yeah," the Doctor dragged out trying to reassure her. "Long time ago. Back in the 70s. Or was it the 80s? But it was all a bit more homespun back then."

"Times have changed, sir," Colonel Mace replied.

"Yeah, that's enough of the 'sir'," the Doctor said.

"Come on now Doctor," Martha said sounding UNIT's defence. "You've seen it. You've been on board the Valiant. We've got massive funding from the United Nations. All in the name of home world security."

"A modern UNIT for a modern world," Mace said proudly.

"That goes around pointing guns at factory workers?" Buffy said angrily. "They have rights."

"It's more like Guantanamo Bay out there. Donna, by the way. Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute."

"Ma'am," Colonel Mace saluted.

"Thank you," Donna said.

The colonel looked to Buffy to give her name.

"Buffy, and I don't need a salute."

"Buffy Summers?" he asked, and then saluted anyways. Before she could recover from shock that he knew her name, the Doctor butted in.

"Tell me. What's going on in that factory?"

Buffy listened as they went through all the details. Normally she had difficulty following these sorts of conversations. Over the years she had adapted her own filter to everything Giles said in Scooby meetings. But now she actually felt as if she could easily follow along. But just don't ask her to fix it; that took the Doctor's style of genius. Technology in the cars was suspicious and it was most likely some sort of alien behind it all, that was as far as Buffy went to knowing what was going on.

"Ionising nano membrane carbon dioxide converter - which means that ATMOS works. Filters the CO2 at a molecular level," the Doctor explained as he looked at the odd little device.

Yup, suspicious alien technology, that was all Buffy needed to understand.

"We know all that, but what of its origin?" Colonel Mace asked. "Is it alien?"

One track mind, Buffy thought. But then she remembered that was just how these military types were. Even Riley was very narrow-minded… or as she called it when they were dating, intensely _focused_.

"No," the Doctor answered. "Decades ahead of its time. Look, d'you mind, could you stand back a bit?"

The colonel looked taken aback as he stepped away. "Sorry, have I done something wrong?"

"You're carrying a gun," the Doctor shot back with a hint of anger. "I don't like people with guns hanging around me, all right?"

"If you insist," Mace said with an offended tone. He turned and left the room.

Buffy followed and left the Doctor and Martha to talk in private. She wanted to know how a colonel in UNIT knew her name.

"Colonel," she called. He stopped and turned to face her. "You knew who I was. Do you have the records from the Initiative? Is that how…"

"No," he interrupted. "No, I don't think I've heard of any Initiative. I know your name because you have been a member of UNIT for the past three years. I've viewed some of your operations out of San Diego and was very impressed."

"Huh?" Buffy stared blankly at him.

The colonel seemed to take a moment to think. "Perhaps you have not yet joined UNIT, ma'am. You are travelling with the Doctor."

Finally it clicked into place. "In the future I go three years before now and join UNIT." She started laughing hysterically. As he tried not to stare rudely at her, Buffy gained control over herself and stopped laughing. "Xander would just love this," she muttered.

"Pardon?" Colonel Mace asked.

"Nothing."

Before they could say anything else they heard Donna's voice. "Oi, you lot!" They re-entered the room through the plastic. "All your storm troopers and your sonics... You're rubbish! Should've come with me."

The Doctor looked at her expectantly. "Why, where have you been?"

"Personnel. That's where the weird stuff's happening - in the paperwork. Cos I spent years working as a temp, I can find my way round an office blindfold, and the first thing I noticed is an empty file."

"Why, what's inside it? Or what's not inside it?"

"Sick days. There aren't any. Hundreds of people working here and no one's sick. Not one hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping trip, nothing. Not ever! They don't get ill."

"That can't be right," Mace said with disbelief.

Buffy rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "Typical."

Colonel Mace looked at her, but Donna continued. "You've been checking out the building—should've been checking out the workforce."

Martha smiled. "I can see why he likes you."

Donna beamed. "Mm-hmm."

"You are good."

"Super temp!"

"Doctor Jones," Mace ordered. "Set up a medical post, start examining the workers. I'll get them sent through." He left the room once more.

"Come on, Donna," Martha said. "Give me a hand."

They left the other way, and Buffy followed the Doctor as he went to catch up with Colonel Mace.

"So this, this ATMOS thing. Where did it come from?" the Doctor asked.

"Luke Rattigan himself."

"And 'himself' would be?"

Mace stopped at a computer and pulled up the file on Rattigan. "Child genius. Invented the Fountain 6 search engine when he was 12 years old. Millionaire overnight. Now runs the Rattigan Academy. A private school, educating students, handpicked from all over the world."

"A hothouse for geniuses, wouldn't mind going there." Both Buffy and Mace looked at him for an explanation. "I get lonely."

Buffy rolled her eyes and walked with them as they argued about who was going to the academy to ask Rattigan some questions about ATMOS.

"You are not coming with me! I want to talk to this Luke Rattigan, not point a gun at him."

"It's ten miles outside London. How are you going to get there?"

"Well, then get me a jeep!"

"According to the records you travel by TARDIS."

"Yes, but if there is a danger of hostile aliens I think it's best to keep a super-duper time machine away from the front lines."

"I see. So you do have weapons, but choose to keep them hidden. Jenkins!"

A UNIT soldier came forward. "Sir!"

"You will accompany the Doctor and take orders from him."

"Yeah," the Doctor dragged out. "I don't do orders."

Colonel Mace ignored the comment. "Any sign of trouble, get Jenkins to declare a Code Red. And good luck, sir." He gave a salute.

"I said no salutes. Buffy, stay here and make sure he doesn't point that gun at anything he shouldn't."

"Now you're giving orders," the colonel grumbled as he motioned Buffy to follow him.

As she left she could just hear the Doctor say, "Oh, you're getting a bit cheeky, you are."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy followed Mace as he oversaw parts of the operation and took an evaluation of everything. He certainly wasn't giving off the evil vibes that Buffy picked up all too late from certain soldiers in the Initiative, but that still didn't mean she trusted these people. The colonel seemed to pick up on her tense, battle-ready stance as she walked with him.

"Might I ask why you don't trust me, Miss Summers?" he asked stiffly.

"Number one, it's just Buffy. B, I don't like secret government military types from past experience."

"The Initiative that you mentioned? What did they do that set your mind so firmly against us?"

"Well, it could have been the horrible experiments, or it might have been that after working with them for just a short while they tried to kill me, or maybe it was the one big, practically impossible to kill experiment that decided to kill everyone else in town."

"Noted. Most of our experiments are strictly technologically based."

"And it's the most that's the problem, Colonel."

They stopped and he looked her over, sizing up the strength that was visible now that she was in Slayer-mode.

"We don't experiment with aliens. We either negotiate relations with them, or if they are a hostile threat…"

"Chop them up and use them for parts?" Buffy said with sarcastic cheeriness.

"We eliminate the threat by any means possible."

"So you don't know enough about this 'UNIT' thing to tell me if they are doing experiments or not?"

"No, ma'am. But I can tell you with complete honesty that any aliens captured should be treated the same as any human prisoner of war according to UNIT protocol."

"What a comfort," Buffy said with no real feeling.

"If I may speak bluntly, Buffy…"

"Shoot… but not literally, that's what I'm here to stop."

"I've seen your record. I looked at it when I discovered I had given my recommendation to give a UNIT commission to someone I'd never even heard of before."

"Me?"

"Yes. I think I give you my recommendation now, and you take it back three years from now. Ma'am, reading your file I was most impressed. You are a true hero for planet Earth. And that's why I won't lie to you now." He looked past Buffy and saw Martha. "Excuse me. Doctor Jones! Found anything yet?"

"No, sir. Nothing to report," came Martha's voice.

He turned back to Buffy. "Perhaps if you come back to the HQ you can see for yourself how UNIT operates itself. Maybe you'll see we aren't like what you've dealt with before."

But as they headed out towards the field base chaos began. Smoke and fumes were coming from all the cars and choking the air. They ran outside to see for themselves how extensive the effect was, but they couldn't see through all the smoke. Instead they just began coughing and choking too.

"Turn them off! Turn them off! Turn off the engines!" Colonel Mace ordered.

"It's all of them, sir. Every single car on the planet!"

* * *

_Duh duh duhnnnnn! More things need a duh-duh-duhn track. Or maybe I've just been watching too much Dark Shadows. Please review!_


	5. Sontaran Sky

_Sontarans part 2!  
_

* * *

Orders rang through the factory as soldiers rushed about to push out the smoking cars and seal out the gas. Buffy followed Colonel Mace into the field base.

"What have we got?" Mace demanded.

"ATMOS is running wild, sir. It can't be stopped, it's everywhere. The whole planet."

Buffy stood back and watched as the officers were compiling data on their individual screens. Buffy noticed Martha enter and move one person from his station on the end of a row. Something about the way she was moving sent Buffy's Slayer senses tingling. Something wasn't right. Buffy tried to reason that she didn't know Martha well, so this could be very typical behaviour. But as part of Buffy thought that, the other part kept insisting that it was very suspicious behaviour for a companion of the Doctor and what she had seen of Martha so far. Buffy decided to make a move when Martha stood and was leaving.

"Everything all right, Martha?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah," Martha replied without so much as a nod and then continued to leave the room.

Definitely suspicious. The world choking to death on alien gas and everything was "all right". Buffy was thinking possession, but with aliens it had to be something else… or did it? Buffy really wished Xander was here with his geek wisdom.

"What's the plan, Colonel?" Buffy asked.

"We follow standard procedures," he said.

"And they are?"

"Don't do anything until we fully understand the situation. In this instance, we wait for the Doctor to see what he has learned in addition to the data we are collecting."

They didn't have long to wait. The radio sounded just moments later.

"_Greyhound 40 to Trap 1, I have just returned the Doctor to base safe and sound, over_."

"Trap 1, received. Over," Mace replied into his com.

Martha returned just a second after looking anxious… or faking it well. Buffy still had suspicions. "Sir, message from the Doctor, he says Code Red Sontaran."

Mace relayed the Code Red in his com, and soon the Doctor came bursting through the doors.

"Right then, here I am, good. Whatever you do, Colonel Mace, do not engage the Sontarans in battle, there is nothing they like better than a war. Just leave this to me."

Not one to so easily relinquish command, Colonel Mace asked, "And what are you going to do?"

"I've got the TARDIS, I'm gonna get on board their ship."

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy noticed that Martha was pushing something on what seemed to be a PDA. She tried to get the Doctor's attention, but he went past her to Martha and whispered something. He motioned for Buffy to follow with them. To the colonel's annoyance, the Doctor slapped Mace's back as he passed him. Buffy smiled and just shrugged her shoulders as an apology. As she left, she thought she might have seen a slight smile on the colonel's face.

Buffy ran ahead of Martha with the Doctor and tried once more to speak with him.

"Doctor… there's something off about Martha."

"I know, just leave it to me," he said as they arrived at the exact spot where the Tardis should have been. Martha then caught up with them.

"But... where's the TARDIS?" she asked.

"Taste that, in the air. Yecch. That sort of metal tang. Teleport exchange. It's the Sontarans, they've taken it. I'm stuck, on Earth like... like an ordinary person. Like a human! How rubbish is that! Sorry, no offence, but come on!"

"So what do we do?" Martha demanded.

"Well... I mean it's shielded, they could never detect it." The Doctor spoke quietly, and there was something very vague and left open in the statement.

Martha turned to him, turning abrupt as she demanded again, "What?"

"Doctor…" Buffy started, wanting to question Martha's odd behaviour. Question her in a small, dark room with one bright focused light while Martha was tied to a chair.

But the Doctor signalled her to stop with just a slight gesture of one hand. He looked at Martha with open suspicion that turned to curiosity. "I'm just wondering, have you phoned your family and Tom?"

"No, what for?" she asked with confused attitude.

"The gas. Tell them to stay inside."

"Course I will, yeah, but, what about Donna? I mean, where's she?"

"Oh, she's gone home. She's not like you, she's not a soldier. Right. So, avanti!"

As Buffy followed the Doctor and Martha back into the HQ she wondered what the Doctor was up to. He knew there was something wrong with Martha; Buffy's suspicions were confirmed. But what game was he playing? When was he going to confront the UNIT doctor?

"Change of plan!" the Doctor shouted to the room.

"Good to have you fighting alongside us, Doctor," Colonel Mace said.

"I'm not fighting," the Doctor replied. "I'm not-fighting, as in not _hyphen_ fighting, got it? Now, does anyone know what this gas is yet?"

"We're working on it," said Martha.

"It's harmful, but not lethal until it reaches 80% density," said a woman with blonde hair from one of the stations. "We're having the first reports of deaths from the centre of Tokyo City."

"And who are you?" the Doctor asked.

"Captain Marion Price, sir." She stood and saluted.

The Doctor walked away with annoyance. "Oh, put your hand down. Don't salute."

Colonel Mace then explained to the Doctor more about the Sontarans and their signal to the cars. They argued a bit over nukes and the Doctor speaking with the Sontarans on behalf of Earth, but it wasn't long before the Doctor was hailing them and one potato-shaped alien was on the screen.

"Doctor, breathing your last?" the potato demanded.

"My God," Mace said not so quietly. "They're like trolls."

"Yeah, loving the diplomacy, thanks," the Doctor muttered to the colonel before addressing the Sontaran. "So, tell me, General Staal, since when did you lot become cowards?"

"How dare you!" Staal shouted.

"Oh, that's diplomacy?" Mace asked sarcastically. It reminded her of Giles talking to her about her pre-dusting puns.

"Doctor, you impugn my honour!" Staal continued.

The Doctor was lounging at one of the stations when he answered. "Yeah, I'm really glad you didn't say belittle cos then I'd have a field day. But poison gas? That's the weapon of a coward and you know it. Staal, you could blast this planet out of the sky, and yet you're sitting up above watching it die. Where's the fight in that? Where's the honour? Or, are you lot planning something else? Cos this isn't normal Sontaran warfare. What are you lot up to?"

The potato general looked a bit caught out, but he recovered. "A general would be unwise to reveal his strategy to the opposing forces."

The Doctor smiled. "Aaah, the war's not going so well, then? Losing, are we?"

"Such a suggestion is impossible," Staal said angrily.

"What war?" Mace asked.

"The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans. It's been raging, far out in the stars for 50,000 years. 50,000 years of bloodshed, and for what?"

"For victory," Staal answered. "Sontar-ha!"

Then the potatoes all started chanting and hitting their hands. The Doctor just rolled his eyes and… changed the channel? That would have really come in handy with some of her encounters with Glory. The Hell Bitch never shut up. Mace was then trying to tell the Doctor that "official" representation needed to handle the communication with the Sontarans, but the Doctor just changed the channel back to General Staal.

"Finished?" he asked.

"You will not be so quick to ridicule when you'll see our prize. Behold!" Staal pointed to a familiar looking blue phone box behind him. "We are the first Sontarans in history to capture a Tardis."

"Well." Buffy wondered how the Doctor could sound so calm. "As prizes go, that's... _noble_. As they say in Latin, _Donna_ nobis pacem." Now she knew how. "But did you never wonder about its design? It's phone box. It contains a phone. A telephonic device for communication. Sort of symbolic. Like if only we could communicate. You and I."

Buffy then realised that the Sontarans were dumb. The Doctor was making it incredibly obvious that one Donna Noble was still in the Tardis and now on the Sontaran ship. But what did the Doctor need her to do up there?

"All you have communicated is your distress, Doctor," Staal said haughtily. Who had ever heard of a haughty potato before?

"Big mistake though. Showing it to me." Buffy was starting to recognise that tone; the Doctor was bluffing. "Cos I've got remote control." The transmission ended abruptly. "Oh, well."

"Oh well, that achieved nothing," Mace said.

"Oh, you'd be surprised."

Buffy wanted nothing more to ask the Doctor what he had up his sleeves (or in his pockets… it's like he stole them from Mary Poppins). But she didn't dare around Martha. Instead Buffy had to stand around feeling helpless. The Doctor was walking around and checking things at stations, Mace was overseeing his responsibilities, Martha was analyzing the gas, and Buffy was just standing around. For the first time in what must have been months, she was actually longing to be in a graveyard after dark with a stake in her hand.

"Launch grid online and active," Captain Price said.

"Positions ladies and gentlemen, Defcon One initiatives in progress," Mace ordered the room. The Doctor came swiftly from his conversation with Martha.

"What?! I told you not to launch!"

"The gas is at 60% density," Mace said with authoritative patience. "80% and people start dying, Doctor. We've got no choice."

As Captain Price started counting the minute down, the Doctor ran his hands over his head and had an angry panicked look.

"You're making a mistake, Colonel! For once, I hope the Sontarans are ahead of you."

Mace let the countdown continue as the different countries coordinated. "God save us."

"4, 3, 2, 1… 0." As Price finished the countdown there was a still moment in the room. Everyone held their breath and waited.

But nothing happened. The screen went blank.

"What is it?" Mace asked. "What happened? Did we launch? Well, did we?"

"Negative, sir. The launch codes have been wiped, sir. It must be the Sontarans."

"Can we override it?"

"Trying it now, sir."

The Doctor was calmer, but it was a carefully contained calm. "Missiles wouldn't even dent that ship, so why are the Sontarans so keen to stop you?" He looked at Martha. "Any ideas?"

"How should I know?" she answered. But Buffy finally had confirmed that Martha was working for the Sontarans. Or at least she _did know_ what they were up to… or could find out. Ok, so not much had been totally confirmed. Something still wasn't right, though.

Moments later a call came across the radio. "_Enemy within! At arms! Greyhound 40 declaring absolute emergency. Sontarans within factory grounds, east corridor __grid_ _six_."

"Absolute emergency, declaring Code Red. All troops, Code Red!" Mace called back.

"Get them out of there!" the Doctor said to Colonel Mace.

Mace seemed to hesitate for a second, but Buffy could see what he was about to order.

"Colonel," Buffy stepped forward. "If there is an army with alien weapons in that factory, even if bullets can hurt the Sontarans your men don't stand a chance. The layout, the weapons, everything is going to lead to a massacre of good men. Men you need!"

"Listen to her, Colonel," said the Doctor.

Again the radio sounded. "_The guns aren't working. Inform all troops, standard weapons do not work_." There were the sounds of screams. "_Tell the Doctor it's that Cordolaine signal. He's the only one who can stop them_."

Colonel Mace took the merest second to look at Buffy. "Trap One to all stations. Retreat. Order imperative, immediate retreat!"

As the men in the factory were following the order and the room waited, Buffy approached Mace and spoke so only he could here. "Every good warrior has to know when to stand and when to move to better ground… even if the ground is behind you."

"Better ground and better weapons," he said thoughtfully. Then he looked at the report that appeared on the screen in front of him. "They've taken the factory."

"Why?" the Doctor asked as he moved about the room again. "They don't need it. Why attack now? What are they up to? Times like this, I could do with the Brigadier. No offence," he added back to Colonel Mace.

"None taken," Mace agreed honestly. "Sir Alistair's a fine man, if not the best. Unfortunately he's stranded in Peru."

"Launch grid back online," Price announced, but just as the screen came up it flickered off once again. "They're inside the system, sir. It's coming from within UNIT itself."

"Trace it," the colonel ordered. "Find out where it's coming from, and quickly. Gas levels?"

"66% in major population areas. And rising."

Mace, followed by Buffy and the Doctor, went into a side office just apart from the main control room. The looked over all the information again in hopes of finding answers in something they may have missed.

"Why are they defending the factory only after we were inside?" Mace repeated the Doctor's earlier question.

And just then the Doctor realised the answer. "Because they wanted UNIT here. You gave them something they needed. Something now hidden inside the factory. Something precious."

"Then we've got to recover it. This Cordolaine signal thing, how does it work?" Mace asked.

"The bullets. It causes expansion of the copper shell."

"Excellent. I'm on it." He then got up and left the room.

"For the billionth time, you can't fight Sontarans!" the Doctor yelled after him.

"A warrior has to try," Buffy said quietly.

"He's not a warrior; he's a soldier."

The Doctor glared at her, but then the glare softened and he seemed to relax his shoulders just slightly. Then he walked over to the nearest soldier and took his cell phone. Buffy then decided to go in search of Colonel Mace and see if she could help him.

She found him going over supply lists and talking with a weapons officer.

"Buffy," he said.

"What's the plan?"

"If our weapons don't work, then we need to get better weapons. The Doctor said the signal affects the copper. So we'll just use bullets without copper. But I don't suppose the Doctor will approve."

"No, but it's something _I_ would do." She gave a smile. "In fact there was this one time I faced this really ugly demon that no weapons forged could destroy. No sword, crossbow, nothing could take it out. But then we realised that the 'no weapon forged' line was from before modern weapons, so we stole this really big missile launcher from the army… and I shouldn't really be telling you that."

He smiled. "Perhaps not. But it shows your determination and ingenuity. Did you say demon?"

Before Buffy could put her foot further in her mouth a soldier came up to them and reported that everything was ready. Mace and Buffy then returned to the control room.

"Counter-attack!" he announced.

The Doctor then came from the office. "I said you don't stand a chance!"

Mace ignored it and threw a gas mask to him. "Positions. That means everyone!"

The Doctor stared at the mask for a moment, but then went and grabbed his coat. Buffy was then outside with Mace waiting for the Doctor. He came shortly, followed by Martha.

Colonel Mace held out a large gun. "Latest firing stock, what do you think, Doctor?"

"Are you my mummy?" the Doctor asked with a childlike voice. Buffy wondered where that line came from.

"If you could concentrate," Mace said with frustration. "Bullets with a rad-steel coating, no copper surface. Should overcome the Cordolaine signal."

"But the Sontarans have got lasers!" the Doctor argued. "You can't even see in this fog, the night-vision doesn't work."

"Thank you Doctor, thank you for your lack of faith. But this time, I'm not listening." Buffy watched with admiration as he removed his mask, put on his hat, and addressed the men. "Attention, all troops! Sontarans might think of us as primitive. As does every passing species with an axe to grind. They make a mockery of our weapons, our soldiers, our ideals. But no more! From this point on, it stops. From this point on, the people of Earth fight back and we show them! We show the warriors of Sontar what the human race can do! Trap One to Hawk Major! Go, go, go!"

There was then the sound of engines and a powerful blast of wind came from above. While the air slowly cleared, Colonel Mace stood tall. Buffy couldn't help but see how much of a good leader he was, and how much of a good man.

"It's working! The area's clearing. Engines to maximum!"

"What is it?" Buffy yelled to the Doctor.

"It's the Valiant!" he shouted back.

"UNIT Carrier Ship Valiant reporting for duty, Doctor!" Mace said as everyone began removing their masks. "With engines strong enough to clear away the fog."

"That's brilliant!" the Doctor said with a grin.

"Getting a taste for it, Doctor?" Mace asked.

"No, not at all. Not me," he denied.

"Valiant, fire at will," Mace said into the com. A green blast shot down at the building, and they could hear the explosion of walls. Soldiers soon exploded the doors of the factory open.

They all ran into the factory, guns blazing… for some of them. The Doctor looked to be briefly talking on the phone, but stopped when Martha and Buffy joined him.

"Shouldn't we follow the Colonel?" Martha asked.

"Nah, you and me, Martha Jones," said the Doctor. "Just like old times! You too, Buffy. Alien technology, this way!"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

They followed him and his outstretched screwdriver down the levels to a dark basement. The lights flickered on.

"No Sontarans down here," the Doctor said quietly. "They can't resist a battle. Here we go."

They walked down a corridor to a door. The sonic screwdriver made short work of the lock and the door opened. The Doctor went running in towards a figure on some sort of alien hospital bed.

"Ooh, Martha, I'm so sorry." He checked the pulse of the other Martha. "Still alive."

The Evil Martha came forward pointing a gun at the Doctor. Buffy wasn't quite in range to take it from her, but slowly moved forward without being noticed. She hoped the Doctor would distract her enough for Buffy to get the gun.

He didn't disappoint. "Am I supposed to be impressed?" He didn't even bother to face her.

"Wish you carried a gun now?"

"Not at all."

"I've been stopping the nuclear launch all this time."

He turned. "Doing exactly what I wanted. I needed to stop the missiles, just as much as the Sontarans. I'm not having Earth start an interstellar war. You're a triple agent."

He circled and Buffy moved in closer.

"When did you know?"

"What, you? Oh, right from the start." Mystery finally solved. "Reduced iris contraction, slight thinning of the hair follicles on the left temple. And, frankly, you smell. You might as well have worn a T-shirt saying 'clone'. Although, maybe not in front of Captain Jack." He paused while standing behind the real Martha. Buffy wondered who Captain Jack was. "You remember him, don't you? Cos you've got all her memories. That's why the Sontarans had to protect her, to keep you inside UNIT. Martha Jones is keeping you alive."

Buffy grabbed the gun right as the Doctor pulled a device from the real Martha's head. The real Martha gasped awake and while the Doctor saw to her, Buffy threw the gun far across the room.

"It's all right. It's all right, I'm here, I'm here. I've got you, got you."

"There was this thing, Doctor, this alien, with this head..."

Then a phone started ringing.

"Oh, blimey I'm busy," the Doctor said while taking the mobile from his pocket. "Got it?" he asked the person on the other line. Buffy assumed it was Donna. "Take off the covering. All the blue switches inside, flick them up like a fusebox. And that should get the teleport working."

"The aliens are called Sontarans," Buffy told the real Martha. "Just in case you missed that bit."

"Thanks," said Martha as Buffy helped her up and on her feet. She then looked over at the fallen clone. "Oh, my God. That's me."

The Doctor put down the phone for a moment. Looking at Martha, he took off his coat. "Here you go. Can't have you walking around like that."

With a hesitant smile, Martha put on the large brown coat. Buffy stood by the Doctor as he fiddled with cords and stuff from the weird, large, round thing and Martha confronted her clone.

"The gas! Tell us about the gas," the Doctor yelled to them.

"He's the enemy!" the clone shouted.

"Then tell me," the real Martha said. "It's not just poison, what's it for? Martha, please!"

"Caesofine concentrate," the clone whispered. "It's one part of Bosteen, two parts Probic 5."

The Doctor overheard. "Clonefeed! It's clonefeed!"

"What's clonefeed?" the real Martha asked. Buffy thought that it was fairly obvious from just the name. It feeds clones, Sontaran clones considering the soldiers upstairs.

But the Doctor explained anyways. "Like amniotic fluid for Sontarans. That's why they're not invading, they're converting the atmosphere. Changing the planet into a clone world. Earth becomes a great big hatchery. Cos the Sontarans are clones, that's how they reproduce. Give 'em a planet this big, they'll create billions of new soldiers. That gas isn't poison, it's food!"

Buffy was right. Point for the Slayer.

Buffy watched, but couldn't bring herself to listen, as the clone slowly died. Martha took back her engagement ring, and then the Doctor flipped a switch and brought Donna back. So the big round thing must have been a teleport.

Donna hugged the Doctor. "Have I ever told you how much I hate you?"

"Hold on, hold on. Get off me, get off me! Gotta bring the Tardis down. Right, now. Martha, you coming?"

"What about this nuclear launch thing?"

"Just keep pressing N, we want to keep those missiles on the ground."

Donna noticed the dead clone. "But there's... two of them."

"Yeah, long story," said the Doctor. "Here we go. The old team, back together! Well, the new team."

As he pushed buttons Donna panicked. "We're not going back on that ship!"

"No, no, no. No. I needed to get the teleport working so that we could get to..." A humming noise sounded while they were covered in bright light. "...here! The Rattigan Academy, owned by..."

There was a boy pointing a gun at them. "Don't tell anyone what I did! It wasn't my fault, the Sontarans lied to me, they..."

The Doctor just stepped forward and took the gun as he kept walking. "If I see one more gun..." He threw the gun to the side. The three girls just looked at each other and walked around the boy.

"You know, that coat, sort of works," Donna told Martha.

"Feel like a kid in my dad's clothes."

"Oh, well if you're calling him dad you're definitely getting over him."

They all followed the Doctor to some sort of lab where he started running around and assembling things while explaining the situation very fast. Typical Doctor.

"That's why the Sontarans had to stop the missiles, they were holding back. Because, caesofine gas is volatile, that's why they had to use you to stop the nuclear attack. Ground-to-air engagement could've sparked off the whole thing."

"What, like set fire to the atmosphere?" asked Martha.

"Yeah. They need all the gas intact to breed their clone army. And all the time we had Luke here in his dream factory. Planning a little trip, were we?"

"They promised me a new world."

"You were building equipment, ready to terraform El Mondo Luko so that humans could live there and breathe the air with this! An atmospheric converter." He grabbed the large tube-like thingy and ran outside. While he started setting up, they all looked out to the fog that was the city.

"That's London," Donna said, not having seen too much of the gas before. "You can't even see it. My family's in there."

"If I can get this on the right setting..." the Doctor muttered.

"Doctor, hold on, you said the atmosphere would ignite."

"You do know what you're doing?" Buffy said with worry.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I? And of course I do… sort of." He pressed the button and a flame shot up into the sky. They all looked up as the sky ignited. "Please, please, please, please, please, please, please."

The sky cleared as the flames dissipated.

"He's a genius," Luke admitted with wonder.

"Just brilliant," Martha corrected.

But the Doctor only picked up the converter. "Now we're in trouble." He ran back into the building and into the room with the teleport. He stopped in the teleport, still holding the converter. "Right, so... Donna, thank you. For everything. Martha, you too. Oh... so many times. Buffy, there was so much I wanted to… Thank you. Luke, do something clever with your life."

Buffy knew this sort of a speech. She could feel herself go pale remembering just how much she knew this sort of speech. She had given it herself before.

Donna figured it out too. "You're saying goodbye."

"Sontarans are never defeated. They'll be getting ready for war. And, well, you know, I've recalibrated this for Sontaran air, so..." He stopped there and paused.

"You're gonna ignite them," said Martha.

"You'll kill yourself," Donna said.

"Just send that thing up, on its own," Martha argued. "I don't know... put it on a delay."

"I can't."

"Why not?" Donna asked.

He looked directly at Buffy. "I've got to give them a choice."

"No, Doctor, I'll…" But before Buffy could finish he hit the button and was gone.

Buffy pulled Donna into a hug, and then Martha. She didn't let the tears fall. None of them did.

Then they noticed Luke fiddling with wires under the teleport control panel.

"What are you doing?" Martha asked.

There was that look again. "Something clever." He pushed the button and was gone. In the flash of light came the Doctor. He fell to the floor panting. He climbed out and sat on the edge of the teleport. Martha rushed to his side and grabbed his arm. Donna walked slowly, slapped his other arm, and then sat down next to him also taking his arm.

Buffy stood there and met the Doctor's eyes.

"Right, I knew it couldn't last forever," he said.

"What do mean?" Martha asked him and looked to Buffy.

"It's time for me to go home," Buffy said.

* * *

_The end._

_Just kidding. It's only the beginning. Buffy still needs to meet Torchwood. But first it's time to find out what has been going on back in Sunnydale. I'd ask you to review, but it seems there is no use in that. _

_There may be some minor delays as I brush up on my Buffy Season 6 and Angel equivalents.  
_


	6. Au revoir

"It's time for me to go home."

"What?" Donna said looking very confused. "No, you can't go. Why do you have to go?"

"Because I'm the one who should sacrifice myself for everyone else. That's how we met, remember? I jumped to save my sister… to save everyone." Buffy looked at the Doctor again. "I think I'm ready to go home, but this time I'll have backup. I'm joining UNIT."

The Doctor nodded in silence, but Donna had more to say. "But you don't trust government soldiers."

"I trust these ones. Colonel Mace has shown me that maybe I can be part of UNIT, and like Martha I can make it better."

"You won't get any arguments from me about that," Martha said. "But you're sure you don't want to travel in time and space any more?"

"I never said that. I love travelling with you, Doctor, and I wish I could forever, but I have a duty. I've run from it long enough."

"If you ever want to come back…" he said.

"I'll call."

He stood and they shared a tight hug. When they parted it looked like he wanted to say something, but he seemed to change his mind. Instead he asked, "So where to?"

"Back to UNIT and get that recommendation from Colonel Mace, and then to UNIT Headquarters in San Diego."

"That's a good base," Martha said. "You'll do great there."

"We'll miss you," Donna said quietly, finally coming around to the idea that Buffy was doing the right thing.

"I'll miss you too, Donna." Buffy gave the older woman a hug. "You make sure to keep this guy in line, right?"

"Yeah."

They took the teleport back to the factory. As they all exited the lower levels and entered the main area, several guns were raised.

"Oi! Just us," the Doctor said. The weapons lowered.

"There you are, Doctor," Colonel Mace said as he approached. "I see you were able to clear the gas. My congratulations, sir." He saluted.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows at the salute. "Yeah, you should thank Luke Rattigan. He gave his life to save this planet."

"UNIT will make sure to record that."

"In the meantime," the Doctor went on, "is there someone who can give Miss Noble a lift home to check on her family?"

The colonel nodded. "Jenkins, you know where Miss Noble lives."

"Ross!" the Doctor shouted happily. "You survived!"

"Nearly didn't, sir."

"Glad to see you're safe and sound though," the Doctor said shaking his hand.

Ross and Donna got into a jeep and left. Martha had a private word with Colonel Mace and left to see to her duties.

"Colonel, I'd like to join UNIT," Buffy said.

"We'd be very proud to have you, Miss Summers. I took the liberty of writing that recommendation. Dr. Jones is currently seeing that all the paperwork is in order. You'll just have to hand it to them."

"Then I'll be ready to head off for good old California. Anything I should know ahead of time?"

For the next half hour, Colonel Mace went over some basic rules and procedures with the occasional comment or anecdote from the Doctor. Martha then came back with a folder with Buffy's paperwork.

"And I want to see you and Donna before you go," she told the Doctor as he and Buffy walked into the Tardis.

"Yeah, it's a promise. Until then, Martha Jones." The Tardis door closed and he slowly walked towards the controls. "UNIT, San Diego, three years ago."

"Yeah, and could you triple check that you've got it right? I think I've heard enough stories about you getting it wrong. We don't need to add another."

He frowned but it turned into a smile. "I'm going to miss that."

"Me nagging at you? I think Donna can manage enough on her own."

"Oh yes!" he agreed. "But… thank you. Thank you so much. You've been… fantastic." He then dropped that lever and they were off. The trip didn't take long. All too soon the Tardis stilled and they were standing by the door.

She had to hug him again. "I don't know why this is so hard. There _is_ _so much_ I still want to see with you, so much we never were able to talk about, but I have to go. I have my destiny. I can't ignore it anymore."

"We'll meet again."

"You promise?"

"Yeah."

"Well, destiny waits. I am the Chosen One after all. Goodbye, Doctor." Buffy walked out the door and let it close behind her. She turned to watch it fade out of sight; she knew that she would never forget that sound, and that she would always be waiting to hear it again.

Turning around again, she faced a bewildered UNIT captain.

"Hi, I'm Buffy Summers. I'm here to sign up."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Apparently there was no better recommendation for joining UNIT than showing up in their front lobby in the Tardis. Just saying she was there to join, and suddenly she was whisked off getting a photo for an ID badge, getting proper accommodations set up, and finishing the last of the paperwork. The first people to see her barely glanced at Colonel Mace's recommendation. But her new boss read it thoroughly.

"Well, Miss Summers," Colonel Benjamin Gold said as they sat in his office. "You seem to have accumulated quite a few honours in a brief period. More than enough to secure you a high position in UNIT. But according to US records, you've been dead for the past four years."

Buffy shifted in her chair. "Not exactly…"

"Not exactly?"

"I've been with the Doctor."

"Ah, that might explain missing… but dead?"

"There's something you should know that's not in those papers. I'm the Slayer."

"The Vampire Slayer?"

"You've heard about that? You're not all 'I fight aliens so demons can't possibly be real?'"

He smiled. "I graduated from UC Sunnydale, the ROTC program. I am perfectly aware of the existence of vampires and other demons, and I studied as much as I could about them."

"But you joined a secret government group that deals with aliens?"

"Here we deal with a little of everything. Alien, demon, it doesn't matter."

If that was the case, Buffy had a question for this guy. "Have you heard of the Initiative?"

"Good God! Don't tell me you've had to deal with them." From his disgusted tone, Buffy's question was answered to her liking.

"It was five years ago."

"That was you that forced them to move out of town? My congratulations to you, Miss Summers, and UNIT's thanks. We were trying to shut them down, but they had the ear of certain presidential aides at the time. Things have luckily changed now." He looked at her paperwork again. "Well, Miss Summers, UNIT will be proud to now call you one of its leaders. You will have a civilian rank equivalent to a captain for now. I believe we are securing an apartment for you as we speak. An account is also being set up. Even though your services to UNIT are… _three years_… oh my… away, you'll receive pay for that now. We'll get you set up with an office and a team. I assume you will still want to keep up with your duties as the Slayer, so we'll give you some leeway there. Did you ever receive pay for that? If not UNIT will be happy to compensate you."

Buffy's eyes widened. "No. Are you really going to pay me for slaying vampires?"

"And averting the occasional apocalypse, yes."

"I think I love you."

He smiled. "I hope you'll be very happy with us."

"Before I start, I need to see my friends and my sister. I've been gone four years, and they think I'm dead."

"Of course." He looked at the paperwork again. "No driver's license. A UNIT soldier will accompany you and act as chauffeur and assistant. You'll need to report for duty back here in two weeks. Based on your report, we'll see if you can stay here in San Diego, or if you are needed back in Sunnydale. Welcome to UNIT, Miss Summers."

She took his hand and shook it. "Buffy."

"I'll see you in two weeks, Buffy."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy went to her new apartment to get everything in order while arrangements were made for her transportation. She would leave early the next morning. Her apartment was just north of central San Diego and actually quite comfortable. Not overly opulent, but it did have two rooms, a fireplace, and a private balcony larger than the average of most apartments. UNIT certainly had the money to look after their own.

The doorbell rang. Buffy opened it to the awaited UNIT assistant. He was of medium height and build, a little on the slightly heavy side, but nonetheless a good looking chap.

'Good looking _chap_?' she thought. 'I have been spending far too much time in the land of tweed.'

"Buffy Summers?" he asked.

"That's me," she said.

He held out a hand and shook hers. "I'm Corporal Timothy Shepherd. I'm to take you to Sunnydale?"

"Yes, just let me grab my bags."

"I can do that, ma'am."

"Please, it's just Buffy. Being ma'am-ed makes me think of some rather unpleasant things. And I can grab my own bags."

"At least let me take one or two."

He seemed so nice that Buffy had to give in. But she didn't let him know that though the bag was large, it was the lightest of the lot. She didn't want to freak him out with her amazing slayer strength just yet. He should at least get to know her a little first.

They put the bags in the car (nondescript but comfortable) and started their four hour journey.

"So do you go by Timothy, or Tim?" Buffy asked.

"Tim usually, my mom calls me Timmy sometimes. Or you can always use just 'Hey you.' If you don't mind me asking, how did you get the name Buffy?"

"An original question," she muttered sarcastically.

"Sorry. I bet you get that a lot."

"Let's just say I like it, my mother likes it, it's my name."

"Ok, I can live with that. Can I ask why you joined UNIT?"

"You may."

"Why did you join UNIT?"

"Long story, Timmy."

"We've got a long car ride."

"Ok, I guess I'd have to start four years ago…"


	7. UNIT San Diego

_Everything Buffy and Doctor Who don't belong to me. And if you catch any of the other little things I've stolen and used here and there (mostly just names) ... they don't belong to me either.  
_

* * *

Buffy stared at the phone, willing it to ring. The past week had been boring beyond boring. Even the week before had been incredibly dull. There was just a fyarl demon in Old Town, a couple of vamps in the Gaslamp Quarter (fancied themselves Anne Rice vampires—could they get any more clichéd?), and an alien landing his ship for a camping trip in East County. One, camping was a uniquely human experience (which apparently was the alien's reason for trying it), and two, who would want to go camping out in San Diego East County?

There were no world-ending apocalypses or invasions. Normally the quiet would suggest the coming of an even greater bout of trouble than before, but that was not the case in San Diego. She was almost considering moving to the Los Angeles branch where at least the demon activity was fairly constant due to the evil lawyers Angel hated so much. Plus, Angel was in Sunnydale and not LA, so it wasn't as if she'd have to see him.

But she couldn't abandon her little UNIT team. She had served with them for almost two years now, and they were like family. It would take something a lot bigger than boredom for her to leave them.

'Maybe I could call Dawn and see if she wants to meet in LA this weekend for some sister bonding and shopping,' Buffy thought. 'But after the last one… maybe not.'

Buffy had tried to get close to her sister after she came back from her travels with the Doctor, but Dawn kept pushing her away. Angel tried to comfort Buffy by saying that it was just Dawn's way of dealing with the fear of losing Buffy again; after the years thinking her older sister died for her, it was too hard for her to risk getting close to Buffy only to lose her all over again. But knowing that didn't help. And added to that Buffy could see as plain as Whistler's bad taste in clothes that Dawn preferred the new family she had made for herself.

Tim walked into her office. Good old, reliable Tim. He was her techie genius, essential to her team, even if he did tend to make long, drawn out explanations in some unintelligible techno-babble only to have to then translate in ten words or less right after so everyone else in the room could understand.

"Hey, Buffy," he said with a smile. "I was wondering if I could take the rest of the afternoon off. It's been pretty quiet, and it is Friday."

"Sure, go ahead, Tim. Gotta date with Amy tonight?"

"Um… well… um, not till Sunday." He gave a goofy, absolutely Tim grin. "My parents are coming into town and they're going to meet her Saturday, and then Sunday we'll have to ourselves."

"Have fun," she said as he left. "Someone around here needs smoochies."

"I keep telling you, boss, that there is no reason why you can't get your smoochies on."

Buffy gave a mock scowl to the woman now leaning on her doorframe. "Thank you, Sam, but no."

"Come on, Buff, I was going to this great club with some friends. I know of one or two in particular who would love to dive straight into a meaningless relationship with you for a while. You don't need to commit if you feel you can't because of your job. Just a bit of fun, what do you say?"

"Have you seen my dating record?"

"Hmm." Samantha's eyes glazed over. "I've seen one dream boat you let sail away."

"Who?"

"The not very tall, bleached hair, British hunk of wonderful."

"Spike?" Buffy spluttered. "No, we never have… never will. He's delusional."

"If that's what delusional looks like, who wants to be sane?" With that Sam left.

Smoochies, family, Spike. It all brought back her original thought about Dawn and her new family. Spike was a brother or an uncle to Dawn, and even after all these years he held on to his promise to protect her. Then there was Dawn's new parental figure: Angel. Never in her most unsettling Slayer dreams did Buffy ever think that Dawn would come to like the souled vampire. But to imagine her having a father/daughter relationship with him was beyond wigsome. Of course, it was mostly due to the fact that Dawn was now engaged to Angel's miracle child, Connor.

Buffy nearly had a coronary the day she found them all living in Angel's mansion in Sunnydale. It was the day she first returned to Sunnydale three years before.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

By the time Buffy and Tim were pulling up to 1630 Revello Drive the two were good friends. Buffy had shared stories of her time as a slayer and then with the Doctor, and he had told her about the different things he had seen with UNIT in Southern California.

"Home sweet home," Buffy muttered while she sat staring at the house that held so many memories.

"Do you want me to come with you, or should I stay here?" Tim asked.

Buffy turned to face him. "I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready for this."

"Sure you are. Nothing to be afraid. These are your _friends_, right?"

"Yeah, my friends… who think I've been dead for the past four years. What am I supposed to do? Just waltz in and say 'Hi Honey, I'm home?'"

"No, but you are going to have to go up there and see who is home."

"You're right… Wait! Dawn! She'd be at school. I don't think anyone will be here…"

"Buffy."

"All right," she grumbled. "I'll go and see."

She unbuckled her seat belt and slowly got out of the car. As she was turning from the door to step up to the curb, the front door of the house opened.

"Xander!" she called.

He stared at her in shock. "Willow did it. She really did it," he said. He recovered himself and ran to grab her in a tight hug. "My god, she actually did it."

"It's good to see you too, Xander," Buffy said. He released her and just stared as if he she would disappear if he even blinked. "But what did Willow do?"

"She brought you back." Then he looked at the car, and at Tim who was then standing on the other side. "She brought you back from…"

"No," Buffy said when he didn't continue. "I brought me back."

"But you were in a hell dimension." He didn't sound certain as he looked at her and the car.

"No, no, I wasn't in Hell. Where's Dawn? Is she okay? Can I see her?" Buffy moved to go inside.

"She doesn't live here anymore," Xander said.

"But this is our house. Our mother left it to us. Why doesn't she…"

"Buffy," Tim interrupted while looking around the street. "Maybe we should talk somewhere more private."

"I want to see Dawn," Buffy told Xander.

He seemed reluctant. "All right. I'll take you to where you can find her. It's the mansion on Crawford's Street."

"The mansion on… but that's where… huh?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

At the mansion she learned that Dawn was living there with Spike, Angel, and Connor. Spike had explained that it hadn't started that way. After Buffy had disappeared, Dawn stayed at Revello Drive with Willow and Tara. But Willow became obsessed with bringing Buffy back with magic—with the horrifying side effect of becoming addicted to magic. Her power-hungry obsession drove Dawn away; it even drove Tara to leave. Dawn ran to Spike for help, but his crypt wasn't for a teenage girl. Only because of his promise to take care of Dawn did he swallow his pride and feelings about the mansion and took her to Angel's place. Neither of them fully trusting the souled vampire, he stayed there too.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"Buffy?"

Buffy brought herself out of the memory and saw the last member of her team standing in her office: right hand man, Thomas Motts.

"Sorry, Tommy, I was thinking."

"Hmm, never a good sign. You know thinking is dangerous to your health. It leads to ideas and then it all goes downhill from there. Concepts, actions, reactions. Best not to tempt it."

"I'll keep that in mind," she said with a smile, having heard this philosophy several times before.

"Can I give you a ride home?"

"Sure."

As he drove them to her apartment, he glanced over at her. "Is everything alright?"

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I just have a feeling that something has to happen soon. Things have been too easy, too quiet."

"I wouldn't call that fight with the Tallaxian bittersnout four weeks ago easy or quiet. Man, that was one hell of a demon. I still say that I could have sworn it broke your neck when it threw you. Thirty feet and you landed against that building head first. I thought for sure your neck wasn't as it should have been, and you were out for at least two minutes."

"If I _had_ broken my neck, I wouldn't be alive, Tommy. It must have been the light or something. Because look! Not dead. I think once and almost twice was more than enough to come back from."

Tommy didn't say anything more, but Buffy knew he still didn't agree. He still thought that she had broken her neck and should be dead. It wasn't a comfortable thought for either of them. She decided to change the subject to get both of their minds off of it.

"I think I'll do a few extra sweeps during patrol tonight. Do you have any plans, or do you want to come with?" She knew he was still suffering from a bad breakup from the month before.

"Just plans with my couch, a few good films, and some popcorn. We could do that after together."

"Sure." She was glad he dealt with his feelings with movies rather than magic. She didn't need to end up groping with the enemy again. And why were all her thoughts today going back to that stupid bleached vampire?

"What movies?" she asked as they stepped out of the car.

"Well, all the alien and monster movies are out. I'm not really up for that much of a laugh. How about a Hitchcock night?"

"Just what I need right now," Buffy said with a fake sigh. "An unhealthy fear of the shower."

"Oh, come on! You could kick Norman Bates' ass any time."

She laughed and started to walk away to her apartment as he got into his car again. She was still smiling, only a step from where she was by the car when she heard the shots. Even as she heard it she felt the punch to the chest and fell back onto the pavement. She knew she hit the ground, she knew she was in pain, but she didn't feel anything. Everything was numb. Her vision was going black even though her eyes were still open. Then the black took over completely, and she was lost in nothing.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"Oh, come on! You could kick Norman Bates' ass any time." Tommy had no doubt that had his boss been at the motel that the plot would have taken a very different turn. Although, he couldn't really see her ever being so desperate for money that she'd steal forty thousand and run away either.

She was laughing and turning away and he ducked down into his car. He was reaching to close the door when shots echoed around the apartment complex. He jumped out of the car and scanned the buildings. Nothing. No glint of a gun or shadow of the shooter on the rooftops or the windows. Then he realised Buffy wasn't standing nearby anymore.

He ran around the front of his car and stopped in complete shock when he saw her. She was on her back, eyes open, blood seeping out from her chest over her blouse, more blood on the pavement coming from the back of her head where it had hit hard.

The shock lasted less than a second. In the next he was kneeling by her side and putting pressure on the chest wound, yelling for help. He held the wound with one hand and used the other to grab his cell. But his cell wasn't at his side; it was still in the car. No one seemed to be around to call for help. For the first time in his career as a cop and then with UNIT he felt panic wash over him like being covered in ice water and being on fire at the same time.

In only a few seconds since hearing the shots, Buffy was dead.

Tommy stood slowly, still not wanting to believe all the signs. But he had to call for the UNIT M.E. He stood, turned, took one step, then another.

From behind him came a gasp. He turned back to Buffy. She was sitting up and breathing deeply and raggedly. She looked at him with wide eyes. He just stared back, and then his eyes went down to the wound. Though there was a bloody hole in the shirt, the skin was perfect.

"Why aren't you dead?" he asked.

She winced. "Ow."


	8. Questions Before Answers

_To make up for the horrible cliffhanger I put you through, I've condensed most of what happens in Sunnydale in this chapter. So it's extra long. But that's good because next chapter the Doctor returns, and then just after that Buffy goes to Cardiff to meet a certain Captain.

* * *

_

_In only a few seconds since hearing the shots, Buffy was dead._

_Tommy stood slowly, still not wanting to believe all the signs. But he had to call for the UNIT M.E. He stood, turned, took one step, then another._

_From behind him came a gasp. He turned back to Buffy. She was sitting up and breathing deeply and raggedly. She looked at him with wide eyes. He just stared back, and then his eyes went down to the wound. Though there was a bloody hole in the shirt, the skin was perfect._

"_Why aren't you dead?" he asked._

_She winced. "Ow."_

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Tommy held out an arm to help her up, looking her over front and back to see if the wounds really were gone. They were.

"What happened?" Buffy asked, still a bit shaky.

"You died."

"_Again_?"

"This wasn't drowning died, this was shot in the chest died. You should _still_ be dead."

She looked down and moved the shirt around to look for the wound. Nothing. She felt the back of her head. Though there was blood in her hair, there was no blood coming from her scalp.

"Let's get you inside before someone sees," Tommy said and helped her up to her apartment.

Tommy waited in her kitchen with a beer while Buffy went to the shower and washed out the blood. It took a while for her to finish and come back out in a new outfit. He wished more than once that she kept something stronger in her house, but Buffy only kept the beer for visitors. She rarely indulged in anything alcoholic herself. Tommy tried wondering why, but he kept seeing her on the pavement with opened dead eyes.

She came out, hair still wet, but clean.

"I think the first thing people ask is if this has happened before," he said. "But I think that is a stupid question given… everything."

"I think this has happened before," she said slowly.

"You've been shot dead before?"

"No, but when we fought the Taxi demon…"

"Tallaxian," he corrected automatically.

"You said you thought I had broken my neck. I remember being knocked out, fighting through the black nothing, and then gasping for breath as I regained consciousness. The same as this time."

"Okay, it has happened before."

"Wait… it happened before even that."

"How often do you die? Is it some sort of habit you just can't kick?"

"No. When I woke on the Tardis, after I jumped, I had the same feeling." The pensive, worried look was replaced by determination with slight panic. "I need the Doctor. Only he can explain. I think he knew even then, but why didn't he tell me?"

"I don't know, Buffy. All I know is that from UNIT records he tends to explain things on his own timetable."

"Yeah, but I have his number. He'll explain this time." She looked around the room as if she was searching for something. "You better go home. I think I want to be alone for a while."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Rain check on the movie night."

"Do you want me to pull some of the weekend people and put a unit together for patrol?"

Buffy gave him a grateful smile. "You read my mind."

"On it, boss."

After he left, Buffy dropped herself onto her couch. Her bag was right next to her, so she pulled out her cell phone. She opened it and dialled Donna's number, hoping she was still with him and that she got the time right.

"Buffy!" Donna said happily on the other end.

"Oh good, I got the time right. How long have I been gone?"

"A few days. Were you thinking of… er… coming back?" she asked in a quieter voice.

"No, but I do need to see the Doctor. Something's wrong."

There was a pause, and when she heard from the other end of the line again it was the Doctor speaking. "Buffy? Is everything all right?"

"Not exactly. Can you come and see me?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll have the Tardis lock onto your phone and be right there." He hung up.

Buffy looked around to see if anything needed a quick tidy before the Doctor arrived. It had more to do with finding _something_ to do and distract her rather than impressing her friends with how neat she could be. Sitting just on the side table next to her were a few papers. She was moving them to the file cabinet in the filing cabinet in the pantry (she wasn't a good cook, so why use the entire thing for just food) when something in between the papers fell to the floor.

Buffy put the papers away and picked up the fallen item. It was her mother's old pocket watch. Remembering the first day she found it in the attic, she wondered why she didn't just call the Doctor then. It probably started everything. That whole first trip back to Sunnydale started and ended everything.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

While Tim stayed in the car to give Buffy both space and a quick getaway if needed, Buffy and Xander walked into the mansion she had hoped never to enter again. It looked similar to when she had last been there, but there were several little decorative differences. The biggest difference was that it had a bit more of a lived in feel than before, but she couldn't pinpoint just what gave that impression. She walked around a little. The drapes were drawn, but the lamps were on and brightened the room. She noticed a woman's sweater that had been thrown and left on the couch: Dawn's sweater, it had to be.

There was the sound of another car on the drive. Two car doors closed. Laughter. Buffy turned to the doorway. Dawn came walking in with a boy who couldn't have much older than her, a boy Buffy had never seen before.

"Dawn," Buffy whispered.

"Buffy?" Dawn stared at her sister. "Buffy is that really you?" She turned to Xander. "Did Willow…"

"No," Buffy answered quickly. "It wasn't Willow. It's… it's complicated."

"You were dead, Buffy," Dawn choked out, tears coming down her face. "You were dead for four years, you come back, and all you can say is that it's complicated?"

"Dawn," the boy said as he tried to wrap an arm around Dawn.

She brushed him off. "What happened? Where were you?" she practically screamed.

Buffy didn't know how to answer. But she was interrupted by the arrival of someone who came from another part of the mansion rather than the outside.

"Niblet, keep the noise down. Still a few hours till sundown and some of us are trying to slee…" Spike let the word drop unfinished as he saw who was standing (and not dead) in the middle of the room.

If the idea of Spike and Dawn living in Angel's old mansion wasn't wigging Buffy out enough already, the arrival of Angel was more than enough to send anyone sane crazier than Drusilla.

"He's done it again!" Buffy said to herself and the ceiling.

"Buffy?" Angel said. "Did Willow…"

"No," answered Xander.

Buffy was pacing the room, muttering then shouting. "_He's_ done it again. _He_ got the coordinates wrong. I'm in some sort of alternate reality. Or maybe I was sent to an alternate reality when I jumped and so it isn't _his_ fault."

"Who's 'he,' Buffy?" Angel asked.

"The guy I was travelling with." But travelling wasn't a word she should have chosen. Dawn and Xander both erupted with questions, they started arguing, Connor came to Dawn's defence, Angel tried to calm them all down, and Spike and Buffy stayed silent. Not one for chaos (at least while his soul was intact) Angel finally took control of the situation.

"Hey! Everyone just calm down, sit down, and we'll talk this through." Everyone took their time to settle down around the living area. Angel continued, "Buffy, we'll start with you. What happened the night you jumped?"

"How do I know that this is my reality?" Buffy asked. "When I was here, Angel was in LA, Dawn lived in our mother's house, and Spike would never have come back to this mansion."

"A lot happened," Angel said. "But yeah, that all sounds about right."

"Okay, so maybe this is my reality."

"What happened, Buffy?" Angel asked again.

"I jumped."

"We remember that bit," Spike said painfully.

"Well, after I jumped I woke up… Oh god! You're going to think I'm majorly crazy."

"After four years of thinking you were dead or trapped in some sort of hell dimension," Xander said, "I think we can believe a bit of crazy."

"When I woke up I was in the Tardis."

"The what?" Dawn asked.

"Tardis. It stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's an alien spaceship that travels in time." She looked around and waited for the first person to call her crazy.

The boy spoke up. "She's right; that does sound crazy."

"Connor," Angel said with reproof.

"What?" he said. Buffy could have sworn there was almost something like family about the exchange.

"So if you woke up in a time machine, why didn't you come back until now?" Dawn asked with an edge of bitterness.

"I couldn't," Buffy said. "I wanted to but I couldn't."

"Why not?" Dawn demanded. "Was there really nothing here worth coming back to?"

"No, Dawn, it wasn't like that. It was impossible to come back right then because of the portal that Glory opened. It locked out those coordinates. We tried to come back but the Tardis was thrown into the future… on the other side of the galaxy!"

"You could have tried harder," Dawn said stubbornly. "Or come back sooner."

"I had to come back now. When I was three years in the future I found out that I come back now. And because of that it's a fixed point in time, and no matter who you are you can't change a fixed point in time. Believe me, I asked and got this whole explanation about wibbly wobbly…"

"Okay, this is slightly ridiculous," Connor said with an unlikely combination of amusement and worry. "You went to the future in your time machine and found out that you come here in the past?"

"I know. It sounds crazy… and it was. I kept wishing Xander was there to make jokes about it."

"So you did miss us." Xander also seemed to have some bitterness.

"Of course I did!"

"How long has it been for you?" he asked. "How long have you been gone from us?"

"A few months," Buffy said with some guilt.

"A few months? What were you doing? Going around time and space having fun?"

"Well, there were some not so fun parts…"

Xander abruptly stood and walked out of the room. Dawn followed, and Connor followed her.

"That went well," Buffy muttered.

"All right," Angel said. "Aliens? This is all getting too crazy."

"You're a _vampire_, Angel," Buffy said. "And technically vampires were originally aliens too."

"What?" Spike asked as his chin hit the floor.

"Long story, I can't remember the details," Buffy said quickly. "But anyways, what happened after I jumped? Why is Dawn here… with you… both of you?"

The room filled with even more awkward tension.

Spike spoke, but he didn't look her in the eye. "There was nothing after you jumped. No body. Everyone assumed that you were in a hell dimension. After the second year, and knowin' about what Angel went through, we had to assume that since we couldn't get you back you were dead."

"Willow tried to do a spell?" Buffy said more than asked.

"Yeah, still is. So obsessed with it that she ran the Bit out of the house; even Glinda left eventually. Dawn came to me, but the crypt wasn't right for her, and I wasn' going to leave her, so here we are."

"But why did you come back?" Buffy asked Angel.

"I had to. No slayer on the Hellmouth meant trouble. Someone had to defend it. There was no slayer called after you were gone, and Faith was in prison. Everyone tried their best, but after a demon biker gang discovered that the Slayer was gone and it was only a robot protecting it, they came and trashed the place. Me and my gang had to drive them out of town. After that we decided to stay and help out."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

After that difficult first explanation things only got worse. No one could understand that it was impossible for her to return sooner. Some she didn't think even believed her. No one trusted UNIT, and they didn't trust her working for them. Oddly enough, only Spike supported her decision in the end. Even though he had the most reasons not to trust any government organisation, he trusted her. He didn't like it, but he trusted her.

But even stranger was that she trusted him. Ever since that first night back, maybe even before. Angel had offered a couple of rooms to Buffy and Tim while they were in Sunnydale. Somehow she and Spike were left alone in the living room later that night.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy and Spike sat for a moment in awkward silence.

"I wonder where Tim's got to," Buffy said just to break the silence.

"I imagine your new boyfriend is around here somewhere," Spike said.

"He's not my boyfriend."

More silence. Buffy shifted and Spike was looking from the floor to the ceiling.

"I met King Henry the Eighth," Buffy blurted.

Spike raised his eyebrows. "You're kidding."

"No. I saved his life, actually. There was this shape stealing alien—really, REALLY big octopus thingy—that wanted to kill him."

"But you killed the big octopus… thingy?"

"Yeah. During the jousting tournament just a few feet away. It was right behind the royal box."

Spike laughed. "Anyone but you, Slayer, and I'd never believe it."

"Sometimes I don't even believe it. I've been… so many places."

"It's changed you. You're a whole lot smarter for one."

"Hey! I was always… no, I guess not." When he shook his head, Buffy realised something was off. "Wait. We're sitting here and actually having a conversation."

"I've changed too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." There was a long pause. "Henry the Eighth?"

"He actually didn't seem all that bad. Good looking too."

"And even while you were travellin' in time you still took time to fight."

"When I had to. The person who I was travelling with tends to solve the big world ending problems without violence. It was nice not to be in charge, not to be responsible. But I did kind of miss beating things up."

"Bet you've gone soft, Slayer."

"No way. Even if you didn't have a chip I could still kick your pathetic vampire butt."

"He doesn't have a chip anymore," a voice behind them said. Connor had just come into the room.

"What?" Buffy said with panic creeping over her.

"I hadn't exactly gotten around to telling her that yet, Whelp," Spike said angrily.

"You don't have the chip?" Buffy said. "Why aren't you trying to kill everyone?"

"He has a soul," Connor said.

"Which _doesn't_ prevent me from hitting you," Spike growled.

"I thought you would have told her!" Connor said.

"I was gettin' to it."

Connor quickly left the room again.

"A soul?" Buffy asked, disbelief in her voice.

"Had to. I made you a promise, and I did what I needed to keep the Bit safe… even if that was from me."

"You did that for her?"

"For _you_, Slayer. I never stopped loving you. Not one day I didn't think about you, not long to be with you… even if you were 'ere and still hated me."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

It had taken a while for Buffy to deal that, and when she did it was in typical Buffy Summers fashion—she ignored it. Eventually she got the whole story: the chip started firing all the time and had to be removed or it would have killed him. And it was Spike, not the others, that asked Willow to give him a soul. Since she knew the spell well, she agreed to take a few minutes away from her attempts at retrieving Buffy. She even altered the curse and made the soul permanent… and Angel's as well. It was one of the few things she had done right in the past years.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The second day of Buffy's return to Sunnydale she had gone to see Willow.

"Buffy!" Willow pulled Buffy into a tight hug. She had decided to see the witch the next day after returning to Sunnydale. From what the others had said, it didn't sound as if Willow was doing too well. "I knew I could do it! They said you had died in that hell dimension, but I knew I could get you back.""

"Willow," Buffy said while pulling away. "I wasn't in a hell dimension."

"Of course you were! You jumped into the portal that was opening into all those other hell dimensions."

"But I didn't go there. I was travelling in time and space with this alien I met."

Willow just smiled as if Buffy was a young, confused child.

"But now you're back and that's all that matters," Willow said. "Now it can be just like old times. I've kept your room the same as always. Dawnie's too, so she can move back in and we can all be here together."

"No Willow. I'm moving to San Diego. I've got a job with the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. I'll be saving the world from demons and aliens."

"The Unified…"

"UNIT. It's a UN special ops group."

"Military?"

"Yes."

"But Buffy… after the Initiative…"

"These aren't them."

"But you're the Slayer! You should be here. Sure you aren't the only one anymore, but this is your home, Buffy."

"Not the only one? Did Faith break out of prison?" She remembered Angel mentioning that she was in prison… but not if that was current.

"Oh, you're going to be so thrilled," Willow was gushing. "While I was trying to call you out of the hell dimension, I had Spike get this artefact that was tied to the Slayer. I used that as an anchor to call you out of hell, but it didn't work exactly right."

"Willow!" Buffy had flashes of another spell not exactly right… and how it had put her straight into Spike's lap.

"No, no. It's good. I called all the potentials."

"The what?"

"All the girls that could be the next slayer became slayers. And then there was the rebellion against the Watcher's Council, and now Giles runs it and is setting up training schools all over the world. Isn't that great? Apocalypse comes and you've got an army of slayers to back you up."

Part of Buffy liked the idea; it was a weight off of her shoulders not to have to be the only one, but the Doctor had already taken that weight off for her somehow. He had opened her eyes. And because her eyes were open she saw the problems.

"An army of slayers? What if governments find out? And the demons. They know the difference between good and bad demons, right?"

"Buffy…" Willow looked at her with a shocked and saddened expression. "I thought you would be happy. Don't you want to thank me?"

"For creating all these problems?" Buffy nearly shouted. In her mind she kept thinking that she'd have to tell UNIT. The UN would be the best to regulate things and make sure Giles' new council was under control. "Willow, I'm glad that you were a loyal friend and didn't want to leave me in a hell dimension. But I wasn't in hell. You should have realised that! After a few tries you should have known and then stopped. Because I _wasn't_ in hell; I was travelling through space and time with the most wonderful man. I saw so many great things. And now I have to come back and fix the problems you've caused."

"Buffy… I had so many plans for when I brought you back."

"No, Willow. Just forget the plans. I'm only here a fortnight and then I'm going back to San Diego and my new job."

"_Fortnight_? You sure you weren't just in an English hell dimension?"

"God, I've been spending too much time around people from the land of tweed… or that just act like it. I'm sorry, Willow. I'm not staying."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Willow guilted Buffy into staying with her at Revello Drive while she was in Sunnydale. As upset with Willow as Buffy was, she wanted to stay in her own house. Life at the mansion was too weird for her to handle right then, and Dawn was refusing to speak to Buffy.

But the next morning, Buffy awoke disoriented. She couldn't remember anything after jumping from the tower into the portal. Willow explained to Buffy that she had been in a hell dimension and it was probably a good thing that she couldn't remember it. Willow also told her not to worry; Willow would take care of everything.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

It was afternoon of the day after Buffy had decided to stay with Willow, and Tim still hadn't heard from her. She had promised to stay in touch and to show him around town. Getting worried, Tim headed out to Revello Drive.

"Buffy, you're here," he said with relief when she answered the door.

"Do I know you?"

"Are you kidding me? Buffy, we spent hours in a car together."

"I have no idea who you are."

"I'm Tim! Buffy, what's happened?" He sounded scared even to himself.

"I don't know. But I do know that I don't know you… you know! Just go away!" She slammed the door.

Tim quickly got into his car and drove back to the mansion. Spike was just outside in the shade smoking a cigarette.

"What's got your knickers into a twist?" he drawled. The vampire obviously didn't trust him, but Buffy had assured Tim that _he_ could trust Spike.

"Buffy," Tim said, and immediately Spike paid more attention. "I went to see her. She promised to call and never did. But when she answered the door she had no idea who I was."

"Bloody…" Tim nearly blushed at the profanities coming from Spike as he stomped out his cigarette. "I'll take care of it soon as the sun sets."

"You know what's happened?"

"Bloody right I do. That bint's gone and mucked up the works with her magic again. This time she's gonna face the consequences." With that less than lucid explanation Spike stormed into the mansion.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

After the disturbing encounter with the man at the door who claimed he knew her (Willow had been out getting supplies at the magic shop), Buffy felt a bit of a headache and decided to try to sleep it off. But sleep brought no relief. Instead it was filled with dreams of strange demons and places. There was a giant octopus, potatoes in blue armour, and a midget demon with three curled head horns. There was a blue box and a man in a brown coat. Voices whispered around her. All she could make out was "child of Time" and her mother's voice calling her name. She woke up after sundown feeling worse and more disoriented than when she had first gone to sleep. Then she heard voices arguing in the kitchen. She crept out of her room to hear who was arguing.

"Don't give me anymore bollocks, Red." That was clearly Spike. "You've worked your little mojo and now Buffy does exactly as you like."

"She was in _hell,_ Spike. It's for her own good not to remember."

"You have got to be kidding me! She wasn't in hell. Slayers are the Chosen Ones, and the chosen _never_ go to hell."

"Angel…"

"Angel had all those sins from being Angelus to make up for. A little time in hell, and now he's their golden nancy boy. But that's not the point. Buffy wasn't in hell, and I had the distinct impression that she liked what she remembers from her travellin'. But you wouldn't see that. You just can't believe that she's been safe and happy. Open your eyes, Red. She's changed since she… since she's been gone. She's smarter, happier, better for wherever she's been."

"That's a delusion!" Willow said. "It's her way of dealing with being in hell."

"She wasn't… Bloody hell! Red, you take off whatever spell you've put on her or so help me!"

"What are you going to do, William _the Bloody_? You're just another pathetic excuse for a vampire who's had a soul shoved into him. By _me_!"

"I'm just going to wait. For all your power you never do those spells completely right. You don't have the patience or the discipline. Buffy's going to remember, and when she's does I'll grab a front row seat to your funeral."

Buffy then heard the back door open and slam shut. She quickly and silently went back to her room; she had a lot to think about.

Spike had a soul? She hadn't gone to hell?

The headache was pounding harder than before. She went to the bathroom to get painkillers and also took pills to help her sleep.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

She was surrounded by fire. Everything was burning. She could hear all sorts of terrible screams and panicked yells. She looked in the sky and saw flying garbage cans with plungers that looked like they belonged in one of Xander's spaceman movies. Amid all the chaos she found her mother. Joyce was surrounded by a strange glow, like something from some tacky scene with a person going to heaven. She held something small and round in an outstretched hand.

"Remember, Buffy," she said.

Buffy was about to take the object her mother was trying to give her when she suddenly woke up.

"Morning Buffy!" Willow said cheerfully. "I made pancakes. I thought we'd eat a nice big breakfast and then go to the mall for some quality shopping time."

Buffy nodded dumbly, still trying to hold onto the strange dream before it vanished completely from her memory. Willow left the room with a bounce in her step and humming an aimless tune. Buffy got out of bed and was walking to her closet when she heard a whisper.

"Buffy." It was her mother's voice.

Shaking her head, Buffy got dressed, fixed her hair, and went down to the kitchen.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Once again, Buffy was dreaming. She was with Dawn on the tower again. Chaos in the air, and the sun was just starting to rise. Once again she ran and jumped into the light. But this time the scene immediately changed to some strange room that looked almost like sea coral. There was a pleasant hum in the room, and whispers of which she could only catch a few words. Child of Time. Tardis. Lady. In the whispers she could also hear her mother's voice calling her name. She focused on that and let it lead her to the centre of the strange room, to a green column surrounded by a hexagonal control panel. On one of the panels sat a pocket watch, small and round. The voices became louder as she got closer. She was just reaching out to touch it…

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy woke up. She remembered the dream so vividly she wondered if it was a slayer dream. It was so clear to her she thought she could still hear the faint whisper of her mother's voice calling to her.

It was still the middle of the night. Buffy took a drink of water from the glass she had left beside her bed. As she set the glass down, she could still hear the whisper. Buffy got out of bed and followed the sound. It led her to the attic. She looked around and found an old box of her mother's things from college. There were a few books, some flyers for dances and parties, pictures of her mother with a great looking guy that was definitely not Hank Summers, and a jewellery box. She took out the small box and pushed aside the earrings and necklaces. There at the very bottom was the pocket watch.

She held it in her hand. Her mother seemed to whisper for her to open the watch, to look inside, to learn the truth. Buffy opened it. A light swirled out and seemed to go straight into Buffy's eyes.

Then Buffy remembered.

The Doctor, the Tardis, Donna, Henry VIII, Martha and UNIT, the Sontarans, the shape stealer, the grask, all the aliens from the different planets she had seen. Everything came rushing back. How could she have forgotten?

Willow.

"Buffy?" She turned and saw the red-headed witch just coming up into the attic. "What are you doing up here so late?"

"I remember," Buffy said. "You made me forget, but I remember. How could you, Willow? _How could you do that to me_?"

"I was helping!" Willow protested. "You were in hell and I…"

"Shut up!" Buffy shouted and walked towards Willow. She brought out as much of the Slayer as she could, both for protection and for intimidation so that Willow would back off.

Willow backed up. But she had forgotten the stairs behind her. Willow fell and tumbled down the stairs. When Buffy reached her she was unconscious and had clearly suffered serious head trauma. Buffy called an ambulance, explained the accident, gave them Dawn's cell number to call, and watched as the ambulance drove away to the hospital. Buffy then went to her room and started packing—including the box of her mother's things from the attic. She had just finished calling Tim when she heard a motorcycle screech to a halt outside the house.

Spike rushed in the door ad Buffy was coming down the stairs with her luggage.

"Buffy? Dawn got a call from the hospital saying…"

"I remembered. I told her, walked towards her, she fell down the stairs," she said calmly.

"Buffy." There was worry in his voice.

"I'm leaving now. I just need to wait for Tim to come and…" She stopped. "Can you let everyone know? And it's not like I'm going to be very far away, but I doubt they'll visit."

"I will. I'll come with you if you want."

"As I work for a government agency that deals with aliens and demons? No. Stay here, make sure Dawn is ok, and tell her I still love her and she can stay with me anytime she likes."

"Sure. I'll keep my promise until I'm dust."

Once again there was that look of absolute adoration on his face. Buffy, too shaken by the events of the night, looked away. She heard Tim's car pull into the driveway. She walked past Spike and didn't look back at him, the house, or Sunnydale itself.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

As Buffy held the watch while waiting for the Doctor, she remembered why she hadn't called the Doctor right then. She had noticed that the designs were similar to the markings on the Tardis console. But with everything being so strange, happening so quickly, she just hadn't thought of it. And when she did she worried about calling at the wrong _time_. Time travel was just too confusing to deal with, and so she hadn't called.

But now she was ready for explanations. Finally she heard the familiar sounds of the Tardis materializing.


	9. Never Destined for Normal

_Finally some explanations. I've had this planned the whole time, so it makes sense to me and I'm hoping it makes sense to everyone else. Disclaimers at the end._

* * *

The Tardis materialised right in the space between living room couch and kitchen counter. The Doctor walked out slowly.

"Where's Donna?" Buffy asked when there was no sign of the ginger-haired woman.

"She's just in the Tardis," the Doctor said while tilting his head back towards the box. "She's a bit tired after all the running and wanted to get some kip."

"Right," Buffy said. She sat down on a chair. The Doctor sat on the couch, leaning forward slightly. He didn't look the same; he had a look she knew well. The look of just holding everything together when everything was falling apart.

"How long has it been since I left?" she asked.

"Not long," he said trying to shrug off the heavy mood he was in. "You said something was wrong?"

Buffy gave a wry smile. "Yeah. Do you want to explain to me why I die and then come back to life moments later?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he said.

"Did you know?"

"Yes."

"Since I first came into the Tardis?"

"Yes. The Tardis scanners showed that you were dead, and then you weren't."

"And you didn't think it important enough to tell me?" She couldn't keep the anger out of her voice.

"There wasn't really a chance. And I hoped that I was wrong, that maybe it would only happen the once. And I never expected you to leave so soon."

"So I really can't die?"

He shook his head sadly. "No. You're a fixed point, an impossible thing."

"But why? Am I even human? And why do I have this?" She handed him her mother's watch.

He took it, and his eyes widened when he looked at its front. "Where did you get this? Have you opened it?" There was panic, almost a touch of hysteria, in his voice, as well as a bit of hopefulness.

"I found it in a box of my mom's old things," Buffy said. She then told him about Willow's spell, the dream of her memories, her dream of her mother on the orange planet, her dream of the Tardis, and how her mother's voice had led her to a box and the watch. She then explained that opening the watch broke the spell over her, but nothing else happened—though the Doctor asked insistently if anything had. Buffy then brought out the box with the pictures and other memorabilia from her mother's past.

With one picture and the watch in his hand, the Doctor looked at her sympathetically. "This explains everything."

"What is it? What does it explain?" She looked at the picture in his hand; it was of her mother and an incredibly good looking man with blue eyes and a large smile.

He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand out at all angles. "Your mother wasn't exactly human. She was human when you were born, but before that—who knows how many years before—she wasn't. She was Timelady. That's what the fob watch means; it's part of this chameleon circuit… It can change a Timelord into a human. The Timelord consciousness stays in the watch, and while it's in there the person is completely human. If she had opened the watch she would have changed back to a Timelady. But you opened the watch, not your mother?"

"She died years ago, just before… I dropped in."

"Died? How?" he asked.

"She had a brain tumour. The operation was successful, but after…"

"An aneurysm?"

"Yeah."

"I'm so sorry."

"But if she was a Timelord… lady… what does that mean if I opened the watch? Is that why I can't die? But I opened it after I met you."

"No, it isn't why you can't die. It's part of it though, a piece to the puzzle." He paused and looked at her closely for a minute. "What about your father? Where is he?"

Buffy was taken aback for a moment. "I don't know. I haven't even thought about Hank Summers for a while. He walked out on us not long after I became the Slayer. He'd visit for a while, but then nothing. He never sent any help or called to make sure we were all right. I don't even think of him as my father any more."

"Is this him?" He held up the photo.

"No. I've never seen that guy before."

The Doctor seemed puzzled for a brief second. "I wonder. No, he has to be. It's the only thing that makes sense," he muttered. Again the hand ran through the hair and mussed it up even more. "The only explanation I can come up with is that your inability to die comes from your father."

"What?"

The Doctor rushed back into the Tardis. He left the door open, so she could hear him fiddling about and talking to himself. He came back out, waved his sonic screwdriver in front of her like some sort of scanner (which she was very tempted to hit away), and then went back in the Tardis. Out he came again, and once more sat on the sofa.

"This," he pointed to the picture and handed it to her, "this man can't die. He's a fixed point in time and space—just like you now. He's your real father."

"How… you can't know that." Buffy may not have thought fondly of Hank Summers as her father for many years, but that didn't mean she was ready to accept the fact that he wasn't her biological father. But one look at the Doctor's face told her that all the rushing about just then meant the Doctor _did_ know it.

"I know this man. He travelled with me for a while, but he died, and I had this other friend—Rose—and she briefly had the power to bring him back to life. But she couldn't control it when she brought him back. That's when he could no longer die. That should not have been passed down to you."

"Then why did it?"

"The power in the heart of the Tardis changed him, and a Tardis is connected to the Timelords… That's it!" He spoke as if he was still putting it all together in his head, while at the same time dumbing it down a bit so he wouldn't have to explain it twice. "Both of your parents were _technically_ human. But your mother still had hints of Timelord hidden in her genetic code, as well as certain energies not natively human. No scanner could have picked up any of it, but it was there. And your father was human, but energy from the heart of the Tardis and the time vortex itself keeps him from dying. It's only the combination of the two that allowed you to also become a fixed point."

"But I've died before I met you," Buffy said. "I drowned and a friend had to do CPR to bring me back. It wasn't like now."

"The portal you jumped into, the spatio-temporal singularity, acted as a catalyst. It activated the latent Timelord properties just enough to latch onto and ignite the energy from your father. Without it everything would have remained dormant, and you would be just another normal human being. Well, as normal as a vampire slayer can be."

"Never destined for normal, was I?" Buffy asked herself more than him.

"Ah, who needs normal?" the Doctor said with a slight, but comforting, smile.

"So the watch had nothing to do with anything?"

"Well… probably not, nothing noticeable anyways."

She looked at the photo again. Why didn't her mother tell her? If Hank wasn't her real father it would explain why the promised visits stopped coming, why he never came to look after her and Dawn when Joyce had died. But did her mother know? And who was this man?

"What's his name?" Buffy asked the Doctor.

"Captain Jack Harkness."

"I've heard that name before—Captain Jack. You mentioned him to Martha."

"They've met. He works for Torchwood… well, he _is_ Torchwood now. He was in Cardiff last I checked."

This Captain Jack looked nice. They looked happy… but there was a certain age to his eyes. They were definitely older.

"Oi! What have you two been up to?" Donna asked as she just then came out of the Tardis. "Is everything all right now?"

"Yeah," Buffy said, putting the photo aside. "I just needed a few things explained."

"And he explained them? In words us _humans_ can understand?" Donna voiced her usual ironic tone.

"Oi!" the Doctor said while looking a bit miffed. "Are you saying I'm difficult to understand?"

"You do tend to run on a bit," Buffy said.

"All those big, alien words," Donna added.

"Oh, it's just like you never left," the Doctor grumbled as the two women laughed.

"I'm starved," Donna said when they had stopped laughing. "You don't happen to have anything to eat?"

"I'll order some pizza," Buffy said.

"If you want pizza, I could just take us to the first restaurant in Italy to serve…"

Donna cut him off. "I don't want to end up in the middle of the Sack of Rome."

Buffy ordered the pizza with a smile on her face while she watched the Doctor and Donna argue over his driving skills.

After the pizza and stories about UNIT in San Diego, Donna took the opportunity to pull Buffy aside when helping her put the dishes in the dishwasher. The Doctor was out on the balcony.

"Is everything all right?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine now." But Buffy hadn't missed that despite happy appearances, both Donna and the Doctor were a little down. "What about you? What happened?"

"Messaline," Donna said; her voice was soft which meant things were more than serious. "It was a planet that stupid box took us to all on its own. Martha was still with us. There was this war, with generated anomalies for soldiers. Kind of like clones. Just as we arrived they grabbed the Doctor and made a generated child from him. A daughter, Jenny. She had two hearts and everything. I thought he was just having a hard time becoming a dad, but he said he's been a father before. He didn't want to get close because he lost so much."

She paused, so Buffy pushed. "What happened to her?"

"He just started opening up, we were going to take Jenny along with us, but she was killed and never regenerated. I think it was like losing his whole family all over again… just when he got a bit of it back. We left, took Martha home, and then you called."

The Doctor then came back inside. "So, Buffy, are you coming with us again?"

Buffy took a moment to look at him. She now knew she was part Timelord, part of his race—not quite family, but close enough. Family was what they both wanted. But she still had family on Earth.

"I can't," Buffy said. "It's not that I don't want to. I do, really, I do. But… I want to meet my dad."

"You don't know your dad?" Donna asked.

"Not my real father, no. And I've just found out who he is. And then with Dawn pushing me away, I feel I have to have some sort of family to connect to. If it doesn't work out," Buffy looked at the Doctor directly, "I'll call."

"Okay," he nodded. "Need a lift?"

"With your track record?" Buffy asked jokingly. "No, I'll have to take care of things here first."

Donna hugged her. "It's not goodbye, so I won't say it. You better stay in touch."

"I will."

Donna walked into the Tardis.

"She's right. Why say goodbye?" the Doctor asked with a sad grin.

"Any last things I should know?" Buffy asked.

"No, I shouldn't expect so. Cardiff is in Wales…"

"Beluga or humpback?" Buffy asked.

"No, the country Wales, no h, not the mammaaaa-Oh, you're joking aren't you?"

"Yup, just keeping you on your toes. I'll see you around, Doctor." He turned to go into the Tardis. Buffy called out to him again. "Doctor, do you know who my mom was? Before she was human?"

"No, no I don't."

"But you and I _could_ be related, right?"

"It's not impossible, but a bit unlikely."

Buffy nodded. "Till next time?"

"Yeah." He nodded with a smile and walked into the Tardis. Buffy watched as the engines started and the Tardis faded out of sight.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

_Buffy's parentage was inspired by and taken from __Life Past Death by jezaeiri on Twisting the Hellmouth. All things Buffy and Doctor Who do not belong to me, but to Whedon/Fox and Davies/BBC respectively. _


	10. Meeting in the Cemetery

_I feel horrible for taking so long to update, but life and writer's block got in the way._

* * *

Somehow on Monday, Buffy was able to go into work at UNIT like normal. Sam was telling tales about her exciting weekend, Tim was working at his desk trying to be both a good listener and focused on his work, and Tommy was sitting back in chair in a way that usually meant someone was about to fall victim to one of his pranks.

Buffy said hello like normal, but instead of lingering went straight into her office. Tommy followed and closed the door behind him.

"How was your trip to the doctor's office? Did you get answers?" he asked carefully.

"Full check up," Buffy said, keeping up the code. "I'm in perfect health."

"Good," he said. "But your condition…"

"Isn't life threatening."

"But it may interfere with your duties."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked. She couldn't remember when she had last seen Tommy so grave. In fact, thinking about it, she had _never_ seen him so grave.

He whispered. "I've been thinking about it. If UNIT finds out, they'll use you like some sort of weapon. I'm surprised they haven't already considering your super strength. But a super strong person who can't die? I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."

"But they're so stylish," Buffy said without any real humour. She was thinking about Tommy's worries. They weren't without basis; they were very valid. "All right. You won't say anything?"

"Not a peep. But someone will notice eventually."

"Yeah. Don't worry. I just had a reason for me to leave UNIT come up. I was going to ask for leave… but maybe I'll just resign instead."

"It's not something I like, but considering… We'll miss you."

"Tommy!" They both heard the yell from Tim.

"What did you do?" Buffy asked him wearily.

"Put paint on his chair. My guess is he just stood up and saw the star on his butt. He is our stellar computer geek after all."

"I'll miss all of you too. Try not to give Tim too much grief." They could hear Tim moaning about his ruined pants. "Too much _more_ grief anyways. I just need to type up my resignation and go see Colonel Gold. That should go well."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"You're _what_?" Colonel Gold nearly shouted.

"I'm giving you my resignation," Buffy said calmly.

"But… why? I just don't understand. You are an incredible asset. Your service to UNIT has been exemplary. I thought you liked it here."

"I do, but after travelling with the Doctor, it never feels right to stay in one place so long." She hoped he bought the one lie she could come up with. "I think it's time to move on."

"Well, we can reassign you. England, Peru, Australia, Kenya… just pick. You don't need to resign."

"I think I do," she insisted, putting on her best resolve face.

"I can't change your mind?"

"No sir."

"If you are sure…"

"I am."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Only a few days later Buffy landed in London. She thought about looking up Giles, but like the others in Sunnydale, he hadn't taken the news of Buffy in UNIT very well. And it didn't help that over the three years since her return UNIT had been keeping a very close eye on the slayers and his new Watcher's Council.

Instead, she had lunch with Martha and Martha's fiancé. Things between them seemed tense, but Buffy didn't think they even realised it. With Martha going around the globe for UNIT and Tom travelling great distances for his work, Buffy wondered if they could work it out. She also didn't think Tom had any idea about what Martha did for a living. And Buffy knew all too well how that went. But she didn't say anything. She just had her lunch with them and then took the train from Paddington to Cardiff. Just over two and a half hours later she was checking into a hotel.

'Thank heavens for payment for previous services rendered,' Buffy thought as she looked around her suite. UNIT paid a decent enough salary, but Tim helping her invest and save the money UNIT gave her for her time as a slayer and apocalypses averted in Sunnydale had made her rather wealthy. The suite with the balcony facing Roald Dahl Plass was also due to the fact that the hotel manager owed his life to a previous slayer a decade back.

She tried just sitting in her room and watching the telly after eating dinner, but she was too restless after the long journey. She needed to get out and see things. She walked around the Plass again, but she had strolled around it during the day before checking in to her hotel. It wasn't too much more exciting at night… well, apart from nearly being run over by a speeding SUV. So much for European countries preferring smaller cars.

But really Buffy needed to kill something. She grabbed the first bus at the nearest bus stop she could find and asked the driver if there were any cemeteries along the route.

It was her lucky night. The bus passed the large Cathays Cemetery. She easily jumped over the gate and started wandering around the impressive cemetery. After the cemeteries of Sunnydale she never thought another could impress her, but this one did. It was large and old and looked just as a cemetery should. But she couldn't help wondering if in a cemetery so old there would be any fresh graves or vampires.

Her luck held. She spotted a group of vamps just entering the grounds, much the same way she had. With them looked to be two students dragged against their will by the three vampires. It was time to go to work.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Jack burst through a side gate to Cathays Cemetery, almost wishing he had a sonic screwdriver. Almost. He could have laughed at the thought of how the Doctor would react to that wish. Jack was sure he'd get a condescending "I told you so" from the Timelord, or at least just a smug smile and an offhand comment about shelves.

Pushing aside thoughts of the Doctor and focusing on the present, Jack flipped open his wrist-mounted vortex manipulator. There had been reported sightings of monsters that were probably just a couple of loose weevils. In Cardiff, deformed faces and sharp teeth meant weevils. But when he reached the area of the sighting he didn't pick up any signs of weevils. He had searched around for a while to be thorough. No signs of weevils. But then there had been another signature—and it wasn't human. He had followed it and was astonished that it led him to Cathays Cemetery.

He walked further into the cemetery. Then he heard what sounded like a fight further ahead. Coming around a tree and stone angel he saw what looked like three men fighting a blonde woman while two other figures ran for the cemetery gates.

Vampires. And apparently a slayer.

It was so much like the last time he had met a vampire slayer.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

He might have been slightly drunk at the time. Just slightly… in that completely pissed out of his head kind of way.

He had been stuck in the nineteenth century for just over a decade. After being so cruelly abandoned by that big-eared U-boat captain he just had to get stuck in a time of extremely primitive technology. Well, at least it wasn't the Dark Ages.

But walking (or the attempt thereof that was really more of a drunken swagger) in the London cemetery in the middle of the night, it certainly was dark. He didn't remember how he had ended up all the way in Highgate Cemetery, especially when he had started drinking in a dodgy pub a bit too close to Southwark. He vaguely remembered wanting to go to Bromley, but that was on the opposite side of the city from Highgate, wasn't it?

Well, he was here and might as well make the most out of it. He wondered where Karl Marx was buried. Was he even dead yet? Eh, communism wasn't really Jack's thing anyways.

Stumbling over a headstone, Jack fell and stumbled through a patch of trees and shrubs. He looked up and saw four really ugly characters ganging up on a tall boy. Their faces looked deformed, and he thought he could see pointed teeth. He glanced at his wrist and then had to look at it again. The men weren't registering as men. No body heat, no nothing, except an unusual energy reading in the non-circulating blood.

He looked again at the fight. There were now suddenly only three, and who he thought was a boy he could now see was a girl. She was wearing the clothing of a lower class boy, but her long dark braid had come loose out of the hat that had fallen to the ground. She registered as human… barely. Something was slightly off.

There were only two of the creatures now. Where did the other ones go? He moved a few feet closer, careful not to be seen. He would have rushed into the fight, but the young woman was doing well. All of a sudden, she punched one of the things' chests. Or did she thrust something into him? But as soon as she pulled back the creature dissolved into dust. But the woman just kept fighting the last one. It didn't take long for her to do the same to it. And in her hand was what looked like a pointed piece of wood. A stake?

No, no, no, no, no. That woman was not just fighting vampires.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

She _had_ been fighting vampires, just like this tiny blonde. Now that she had stopped moving in a blur of fighting, he saw just how small she was. And boy was she _tiny_!

She suddenly turned in his direction and he hid behind the angel. Thistime he actually could silently hide; the last slayer had seen him. He didn't think this one had spotted him, but she was fast. Too fast. She had to be the Slayer.

_A_ slayer, he had to remind himself. Rumour was that a few years back someone meddled with magic and called them all. Jack was sceptical at first, but then some government contacts confirmed it. Jack just kept repeating to himself that magic was just a different form of science and not supernatural. Still, even with so many slayers now, a slayer in Cardiff was rare. The government didn't trust them and the slayers didn't trust the government, so they had a mutual silent agreement to avoid each other. That meant that slayers weren't really supposed to be in Cardiff and Torchwood's turf… not _working_ anyways. Jack decided to keep an eye on this one.

He followed her and saw her get onto a bus. It was one of the buses that led all the way to Mermaid Quay. He got the number, ran to the SUV, and found the bus again along its route. He followed it, waiting for the woman to get off. As they got closer and closer to the bay, Jack was wondering if perhaps he had missed seeing her get off. He was just about to give up and turn towards the Plass when he saw her get out and head in that very direction. He parked the SUV and followed her from a couple hundred feet away. Her light hair in the street lights stood out enough to keep in sight. He stopped when he realised she was heading for St. David's Hotel.

Tiny, fast, strong, an amazing fighter, and wealthy. He'd have to keep a very close watch on this one.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The next day Ianto, per usual, was the first to enter the Hub. And luckily he was just the person Jack needed to do a little information gathering on the new slayer in town.

"Ianto!" he called across the Hub as he walked towards the Welshman.

"Captain," Ianto replied and waited.

"I need you to get me a list of people staying at St. David's Hotel. A list of the women specifically."

Ianto looked puzzled and slightly disapproving. "Will I get to know why you need a list of the female guests at the hotel?"

"Need to know," Jack answered. His team had enough trouble handling their knowledge about aliens; they didn't need to be burdened with slayers and demons too.

Ianto didn't look happy, but he nodded anyways. "I'll get right on that, sir."

"Thank you, Ianto," Jack said softly. "No need to mention this to anyone either. It's more a personal matter than Torchwood business."

Ianto didn't say anything else. Jack knew he was unhappy about it, that all the team still didn't trust him not to run away again. They only barely trusted Jack after all the secrets that had come out: he couldn't die, he used to be a conman, he was partners with a man like Captain John, and that was only the beginning. Jack let out a sigh as he sat behind his desk. It was just going to take time to make them realise how much Jack did want to be with them and did trust them… and that they could trust him.

The rest of the team slowly arrived. As Ianto brought coffee around for everyone he left a folder with Jack's cup on his desk. He still hadn't had a chance to go on that date with Ianto. He was thinking he better make it a special one. Jack sipped the coffee and then opened the folder.

He scanned the guest list. Ianto had highlighted all the females. Jack wasn't worried about the slayer sharing a room with someone else and under that someone else's name. He hadn't seen a watcher with her last night, so she was most likely travelling alone. He wasn't sure what he was looking for exactly; he was first just narrowing it down to the names that looked like they might fit her. Most of the Welsh names he immediately threw out. She was too blonde and just didn't move like a citizen of the British Crown. One name caught his attention almost instantly: Buffy Summers.

Who named their kid Buffy?

But something about the name stuck with him, so he looked her up on the computer first. He was in complete shock to have a UNIT record come up. He opened the file and read through it.

Buffy Anne Summers. Born 1981. Joined UNIT three years ago, resigned just days ago. Exemplary service, high honours. Called to be the Slayer at age 15. Lived in Sunnydale until 2001 when she was presumed dead. Didn't reappear until 2005 when she joined UNIT. It was very odd because even his clearance couldn't access the file UNIT had on the missing years.

A slayer _and _she had a chunk of her life completely sealed? What was she doing in Cardiff? And staying in the hotel closest to Torchwood?

"Sir," Ianto said from the door. If he was calling Jack "sir" then he must still be upset with him. Yup, that date had to be pretty special… if Ianto would still go. "Local police have spotted what appears to be a _Klingon_ running around the Millennium Stadium."

"Klingon? Sounds like some sort of a prank and not our problem."

"According to one of the constables at the scene, the language being shouted from the Klingon-like person is not even close to the Klingon language, as well as there being several other notable differences. They seem sure that this is in our jurisdiction."

"Leave, come back, and what do I get? _Klingons_," Jack grumbled as he pulled on his coat.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

It took the rest of the day to deal with the "Klingon". Really it turned out to be a Dargemk who wanted to see a rugby match. It took a whole lot of "persuasion" and even more running to get rid of him. More than once he wished he had a super strong slayer around to help with the persuading. It was a shame that slayers couldn't liaise with the organisations fighting alien threats. So far only Miss Summers had.

While Jack let everyone go home for the night, he headed back to the cemetery in hopes that Miss Summers would return. He wandered among the gravestones for over an hour without any sign of her.

Then he noticed movement: a weevil. Of course, _tonight_ it would be a weevil. He pulled his weevil spray out of a coat pocket and walked towards it. It naturally had to take off running. Jack pursued it. He finally cornered it between a couple of large grave statues. Then it started to fight back so Jack had to start throwing punches and try to hit it with some of the spray. Unfortunately, this weevil was pretty strong. Jack was on the ground and it was looking like he might add one more return from death to his total when the weevil was thrown off of him. Jack could only watch in admiration as Buffy Summers kicked and punched in a blur of motion. She certainly had style.

"Are you going to help?" she called to him as she ducked away from the weevil's teeth.

"Looks like you have it under control." Jack replied as he stood up.

She didn't respond. A few more punches and then there was the flash of a knife. With one quick plunge into the heart, the weevil was dead.

"Did you have to kill it?" Jack asked.

"It was trying to kill you," she answered, still holding the knife defensively. "Should I apologise for saving your life now?"

"I don't know. Captain Jack Harkness," he introduced himself. "And you are a vampire slayer, Miss Summers."

She looked surprised for a moment, but quickly hid it. "How do you know who I am?"

"I followed you last night. Vampire slayers are rare here, so I wanted to know who you were."

"You looked me up?" It was more of an amused statement than a question.

"Buffy Summers, vampire slayer working with UNIT. What brings you so far from San Diego? Business or pleasure? Because word is you just quit."

"Both I guess. I would have thought someone in Torchwood would know how to fight better."

He laughed. He wasn't too surprised that she knew who he was and who he worked for. But she was right; Torchwood should have more muscle with their guns. "How about this: you come work for me. Are you interested?"

She stared at him for a moment, sizing him up. "Why?"

"You're the only slayer to fight threats from both under the earth and beyond it. Your references are, quite frankly, brilliant! I don't know why you are here now, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Torchwood could use a slayer, especially one with your experience. So, are you interested?"

She looked like she was thinking it over. He gave her a few minutes. "Yeah." She nodded slowly. "Why not? It's all in the family."

It was an odd statement, but he'd ask her about it later. "Come to the tower fountain across from the Millennium Centre tomorrow morning at nine. I'll give you the tour." With that, Jack left with a smile across his face.

* * *

_PLEASE let me know what you think. I'm having a spot of trouble and need to know what you like, where you think it should go, any random thoughts or ideas._


	11. Welcome to Cardiff

Buffy was still in shock when she returned to her hotel after her second day in Cardiff. She had never thought to find Captain Harkness in the cemetery, but there he had been—in an old military coat no less. She wasn't expecting the eccentric style of dress either. She had even fewer expectations of receiving a job offer. She still didn't know why she took it. It just seemed right at the time—just like the odd fashion style seemed right for the captain.

When Buffy got up the next morning her phone started to ring.

"Summers," she answered automatically.

"What the hell are you doin' in Cardiff, Slayer?"

"Hello Spike."

"Yeah, 'allo and all that. Are you going to answer my question?"

"Well, how much did Dawn tell you?"

"She read me that email you sent her. Right upset she was about it too."

Buffy sighed. "First she won't see me, then when she does she's distant and sulky, and now she's upset that I decided to go to Great Britain for a while? Can't she make up her mind?"

"The Nibblet just doesn't want to go through what she went through seven years ago."

"I'm not dead, and I'm still on the planet; this isn't like then."

"All right, no need to get your knickers in a twist. So why did you up and leave for the Old Country?"

"I recently found out that Hank Summers isn't my father. I've come to meet the real one."

"And you didn't tell Dawn this because…"

"She seems perfectly happy with her current family, and I didn't want to involve her before I knew what our biological father's reaction would be. Plus, how do I explain that though he was with my mother only enough for her to get pregnant once, he has two daughters because some monks took my blood and made her out of a mystical ball of possible-world-destroying energy?"

"I see your point."

"I'm glad someone does. Listen, Spike, I have to go. I think I'm joining Torchwood today."

"Torchwood?"

"Yeah, it's a different group that fights aliens here in Cardiff."

"Why would they go to _Cardiff_? And why are you joining another of these 'organisations?'"

"Hell if I know. If they tell me, or I think of the reason, I'll let you know."

"You better, Slayer."

They both hung up. Leave it to Spike to be the one to track her down wherever she's been… and to remind her about the problems with telling Harkness about their relationship. But that's why she was here. Bracing herself for the changes that would come today, Buffy headed out to the Plass.

As she approached the tower she saw Captain Harkness rising out of the ground just in front of it.

"Don't tell me you have an elevator from your secret base to the middle of this very public area? Didn't they teach you anything about staying low profile?" She had heard Torchwood was the most known secret organisation in the city. That seemed to explain where Buffy got her lack of stealthy/secret identity skills.

He seemed surprised and looked at her with calculating eyes. "It's our invisible lift… _supposedly_ invisible anyways." He stepped down. "The perception filter keeps people from noticing anyone on the spot."

Buffy could hear the challenge: how did she notice him? "I'm a very perceptive person."

He laughed, and he seemed to let the subject go. "Step on and let's give you that tour, shall we?"

They both stood on the square, he pressed something on his wrist strap, and the ground began to drop. Buffy watched as the tower continued for what had to be at least a hundred or even two hundred feet below the pavement. The whole cavern was a cross between an Underground station, the Batcave, and a bit of retro Star Trek. As they descended a pterodactyl swooped past them.

"You have a dinosaur," she stated as if she were talking about the weather.

"You don't seem too surprised," he said.

"I've seen a dragon before. Did someone open some sort of temporal gate?"

The Captain again looked surprised, but this time it was a pleased surprised instead of an annoyed surprised. "There's a rift in space and time running through Cardiff. Things fall through more than occasionally."

"Hence the Batcave in Wales." As the square stopped there was a young man in a suit waiting just to the side. "This Alfred?"

Jack laughed. "Buffy Summers, meet Ianto Jones. Sort of our Alfred, but better looking."

"I wasn't aware we were expecting a visitor today," Ianto said, unruffled by the comparison to Batman's butler but slightly miffed at not knowing she was coming.

"I didn't have the chance since I sent you all home last night," Jack replied. "Can you start pulling out the paperwork? Buffy's going to be joining us."

The Welshman looked her over; Buffy was certain that he noticing how small and blonde she was. But a large part of her loved that people underestimated her. The looks when they found out what she was capable of more than made up for it. He left—presumably to get the paperwork—and passed another man just coming through an impressive cog door that made a whole lot of noise. The man stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Buffy.

"Who's she?" he asked a bit rudely.

"Buffy Summers meet Owen Harper," Jack introduced, completely unfazed and still smiling.

"_Doctor_ Owen Harper," Owen groused.

Jack just laughed as if he had heard it before. "I'll need you to take a couple of samples from Buffy. She's signing up today."

"Samples?" Buffy asked.

"Just the standard blood, DNA, that sort of thing," Jack reassured her. "Rules and regulations. You probably had to do the same for UNIT, right?"

"Wait," Owen said. "She's a UNIT grunt?"

"Oi!" Buffy said while pulling her best Donna impression. "A bit more than just a grunt. I led my own team for three years."

"And now you've been demoted to Torchwood?"

"Promoted," Jack corrected. "Right out of San Diego."

"So it's demoted _and _exiled then," Owen replied. He then walked away and down into what had to be his area of the Hub. He shouted back to her, "Are you coming, Bunny?"

"It's _Buffy_!" Buffy gave a dramatic sigh and eye roll. "Hold my purse?" she asked with a false cheery sarcasm.

"I'll give you the tour when you're done," Jack called after her. Then as he went into his office he couldn't help himself as he looked through the bag and her wallet. Stakes, holy water, lip gloss and other feminine accoutrements, pictures in the wallet of Buffy and a younger girl that looked like she could be a cousin, pictures with a red headed girl and a dark haired boy, and then a picture of a woman that had to be Buffy's mother.

Jack looked for a while at the picture of the mother. She looked familiar. Well, back in the late seventies he had gone to help UNIT with a problem just outside of LA. He could have met her then.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Ianto was bringing up the paperwork for this new recruit, when Tosh and Gwen came through the cog door.

"Morning Ianto!" Gwen greeted brightly. "Oof, that's a lot of paperwork you've got there."

"New recruit," he said.

"What?" Tosh asked.

"Jack just brought her in. No warning about it."

"I wish he would stop doing that," Gwen said. "Keeping all these secrets, just pulling out new surprises at every turn…"

"That's Torchwood," Tosh said half-heartedly, as she agreed with the Welshwoman. "What's her name?"

"Buffy Summers," Ianto said.

"Buffy? That's a bit unusual of a name, isn't it?" Gwen said. "What's she like?"

"American, blonde, five foot four."

"Not exactly Torchwood material," Tosh muttered.

"That's what I thought," Ianto said.

"Oh, come on!" Gwen said—ever the optimist. "She might be nice."

They watched as Jack came out of his office. Gwen moved to speak first, but Jack cut her off. "Is that the paperwork, Ianto?"

Ianto nodded and held out the stack of papers to him. Again Gwen tried to speak, but Jack was too quick at ignoring it. He yelled down to the medical pit, "Owen, if you're done turning Buffy into a pincushion I'd like to see her in my office."

Everyone could just make out Owen's grumbles, "Yeah, yeah, she's coming. Hold your horses, Harkness."

The others watched a short blonde come from Owen's pit and go into Jack's office. Then the two left and started the tour. Knowing introductions would come later, everyone settled into work at their individual stations while occasionally glancing up to observe the newcomer.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Hours later…

Buffy glared at Jack. The tour was fun; the Batcave had some pretty awesome stuff in it. There was definitely more alien junk, but then again, Buffy worked field operations and other people dealt with the "stuff." She wasn't too sure about keeping the weevils locked up; her slayer self wanted to just eliminate the problem and put the creatures out of their misery. She decided to wait to bring that up later.

But then that smiling, sadistic captain sat her on the other side of his desk filling out the paperwork. His part to sign and fill out was small compared to her mountain of dead trees. And you'd think after being shot that a paper cut wouldn't even register as a pain, but no! At least the incredible pain was brief—the perk of having super slayer healing.

So here she was, finally done with the forms, glaring at the grinning man. The nerve!

"So with all your fancy computers," she said at last, "_why_ did I have to fill out all those papers?"

"Computers are easier to erase than vault-sealed paper files," he said. "Ianto will put in all the information in our computers and store the hard copy with the other records."

"Lucky him."

"Time you met the rest of the team." He led her out of his office. One woman was busy at work, but the other had a look of pretending to be busy and inconspicuous. Jack introduced her first. "Buffy Summers, Gwen Cooper. And over there—Toshiko Sato. You _all_ probably already know," he threw a pretend glare at Ianto (busy tiding up the table in front of the couch), "Buffy is joining the team. Ianto, the paperwork just needs to be filed, and then if you could get Buffy her gun."

"Oh no!" Buffy protested. "I don't do guns."

"Every member of Torchwood must be armed," Jack said.

"Yeah, well I'm not _every_ member of Torchwood."

"Didn't you have one with UNIT in San Diego? You have to defend yourself. You carry a gun." Jack's tone was firm, the tone that meant the argument was over. But he had never argued with Buffy Summers.

"No, I didn't carry a gun when I worked for them, and I won't carry one now. I'll carry a knife, a crossbow, a stake, a sword, a mace… hey, Friar Tuck be damned! I'll even carry a quarterstaff, but I _will not_ carry a gun."

"A knife is too impractical." Jack still had the firm tone.

"A knife doesn't run out of bullets," she countered.

"She has a point," Owen interrupted, just coming up from his pit. "Jack, can I have a word with you?"

"See!" Buffy said.

"This is not over!" Jack said and emphasised by pointing at her. The two men went down to the medical area and spoke quietly so no one heard them.

"A quarterstaff?" Gwen asked as soon as Jack was out of sight. She laughed slightly as she joked, "Where did Jack find you? The Middle Ages?"

"I found him… sort of," Buffy said in an off-hand manner.

"Welcome to the team," Gwen said with a large smile.

"You're from California?" Toshiko asked.

"Born and raised! But I thought it was time to leave the desert for a while."

"You couldn't have come to any place more different," Tosh said. "All it does is rain."

"About that, I'll need to update my wardrobe with weather-friendly outfits. And I love those boots, by the way! Where's the best shopping around here?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"What is it, Owen?" Jack asked the doctor quietly.

"Buffy Summers," Owen said. "She isn't human."

"What?" Jack expected a slayer to be slightly off… but only slightly.

"It gets even better," Owen continued. "I ran her DNA through the system to see what sort of alien she might be. I'd figure _part_ alien since there are _some_ human genes mixed in. I got nothing, except it did pull up a similar match. A paternity test, if you will."

Owen pointed to his screen. There in glowing pixels it said that Jack Harkness was the father of Buffy Summers.

Jack then remembered where he had met Buffy's mother before. It had been a while since he was in LA. Joyce. She had been one hell of a woman.

"How can she not be human?" Jack asked. "Joyce was definitely human, and I'm human."

"I don't know," Owen said. "All I do know is that she's not fully human, there's some unusual but harmless energy around her, and she's your daughter."

Jack said, "Turns out I was right to keep an eye on her."

"Is that why she's here? You were keeping an eye on her?" Considering Jack and his open flirting, Owen left that last question open. Though it was more than a bit weird that he might have been flirting with his own daughter—whether he knew it or not.

"Let's just say, I knew before this that Buffy had some special qualities. Don't underestimate her just because she's small and blonde. Look over her medical records with UNIT. I'm surprised they didn't pick up on this. I'm not going to bring any of it up with her just yet, so we're going to keep this between us."

Owen nodded and went back to his screen to puzzle out the results and Buffy's medical history some more. Jack returned to the main area where the girls were talking about clothes. Being any other man, he might have rolled his eyes. But being who he was, he knew quite well that Buffy would need to change her California wear for Cardiff outfits.

"Gwen, Tosh," he said. "Why don't you take Buffy out shopping for a more Torchwood appropriate wardrobe? I'll have Ianto hunt you down a place to live. That hotel is going to get expensive. I'll keep an eye on rift activity and shout if anything comes up. Welcome to Cardiff, Miss Summers."

Meanwhile he had to sit and wonder about the new puzzle that was Buffy Summers.

* * *

_Comments, questions, and ideas are welcome. I feel like a broken tape, but please review. Thank you all so much for putting my story in your favourites or on alert, but reviews let me know better how I'm doing as an author._


	12. Arsenic and New Team Members

_Huge thank yous to all who reviewed (and will review again)!_

_So looking at my story with a critical eye and thinking about the real world, the ability to retrieve instantaneously records and a complete medical history from the late 1990s is highly improbable; however, remember a few points. The Torchwood computers are very advanced, and most of the team have been working with them for years—so by now they are quite proficient. Another point is expressed best by Dianna Rigg in my favourite Muppet movie: "It's plot exposition. It has to go somewhere." Rather than dragging this out even further, I just want to move it forward and get more into the second series of Torchwood. The last point is that this is fan fiction: fiction based on fiction. You should be experiencing a level of suspended disbelief. So if you have an issue with this, just raise that disbelief a little higher so it's out of the way._

_

* * *

_

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Owen was not happy. But then again, Owen was rarely happy. As Jack had suggested, the doctor hacked into UNIT for Buffy Summers' medical records. The same strange, alien readings were there, but UNIT had put them down to Buffy being a vampire slayer.

Vampire. Slayer.

At first he had thought someone in UNIT got a bit pissed at a Christmas party and put vampires and vampire slayers in the records as some sort of a joke. But that didn't seem likely. Owen spent the rest of the day poking around UNIT and Torchwood records to try and figure it all out. In the end he discovered that not only were there aliens coming to earth and making mischief, but there were alien-turned-indigenous demons mucking up the works as well. To top that there was a girl called by some mystic power (put down to some sort of science beyond human comprehension) to be some sort of superhuman fighter to kill the demons. For centuries there was only one at a time until recently when hundreds of girls gained slayer powers. They even had their own organisation to control them, and the world governments were doing everything they could to give that organisation as little power as possible. And witchcraft was real.

Not just on a whim, Owen pulled her high school and college medical records and checked the blood results, since some of the differences were in the blood work itself and not just the DNA. Totally human. And that was after she became a slayer. How is someone born totally human but changed into a half alien?

There was a gap between her UNIT service and a time she was presumed to have died. UNIT had some extra file on that time, but the Torchwood computers could not open it. Owen just knew that whatever happened to make Buffy not completely human happened in those missing years.

By the end of the next day, Jack still hadn't approached Buffy about being her father. It wasn't an easy subject to just bring up, and the blonde had been busy looking for a place to live, furnishing it, and furnishing an entirely new wardrobe.

Owen went into Jack's office and closed the door behind him. The captain put down the papers he was going over and folded his hands in front of him, waiting for the doctor to speak.

"She's not human, but I don't think it has anything to do with being a vampire slayer," Owen said.

"So you know now," Jack stated.

"How could we not have seen this? It's in the records, Jack. I just had to dig around for it. Why hasn't this come up before?"

"You didn't need to know. Demon activity is pretty rare here; they stay clear of the Rift if they are smart, and the occasional vampire or other demon we just put down as alien."

"We're out of our depth with this, Jack." Owen had glanced through UNIT's demon database, and not everything could be killed with just bullets. They were fighting a two-fronted attack… but more like one front and a completely unknown enemy sneaking up behind them. It was like Harold being too busy fighting Harald to notice that William's come and burnt all his boats, and history showed how that went. Eyes were going to be lost.

"That's why I brought her here. We need the muscle."

Owen shook his head. "If I hadn't spent so much time reading about slayers, I never would have believed that the tiny American is our 'muscle.'"

"I know the feeling," Jack said with a laugh and that look of remembering the past. "What makes you think her non-human DNA has nothing to do with being the slayer?"

"One, even when there was only one, any doctor in the last half century would have noticed, and now with all of them around? To hide, to blend in, it doesn't make sense that there would be such a big difference in the DNA coding that it shows up in the blood. I checked her medicals from high school and college, a time when she was a slayer, and they were totally human. There is a gap in her history, years when she was missing, and then she comes back not fully human. The answer is in that gap, Jack." Owen paused. "When are you going to tell her about all this?"

"Soon," Jack answered.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy sat at the station that had been set up for her. Luckily after her UNIT experience, her natural tendency to disagree with technology was no longer a problem. But it still probably wasn't wise to have her get behind the wheel of a car… especially when everything was on the other side of the road now. Maybe she could get a Vespa.

There wasn't much going on. Owen was talking to Jack, Tosh had her spare projects running, Ianto did whatever he did wherever he did it, and Gwen was on the phone with her fiancé. Apparently the rift was having a bit of a lull due to recently being stitched together after some time fluctuations. So in order to combat the boredom, Buffy was staring at the base of the tower and the pterodactyl flying around it.

Jack had mentioned the invisible lift was invisible because of a perception filter. Now, Buffy remembered that the Doctor had once said that the Tardis had a perception filter. Maybe the two were connected. More and more, events in her life proved that there were no such things as coincidences.

Ianto, the newly dubbed God of Coffee, put a fresh cup on her desk.

"Have we named the pterodactyl?" Buffy asked him.

"Myfanwy," he answered curtly. Buffy didn't think he liked her very much. Though the coffee was the best in the universe (she loved that using that expression wasn't a hyperbole—she _had_ been around the universe after all, and none of the coffee could compare), she still checked the coffee for any obvious signs of poisoning. It smelled and looked normal, so she took the barest taste with her tongue, then the smallest sip. Since it didn't cause any immediate twinges in her stomach or a slight foaming at the mouth, she decided that Ianto hadn't poisoned _this _cup. She started to drink it down in normal sips.

She looked up and saw the Welshman staring at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Do you always drink your coffee like that?"

"Just checking for poison," Buffy said with her best cheerleading-bimbo smile.

"Ianto, are you trying to poison the new recruit?" Jack asked jokingly as he appeared out of nowhere.

Ianto looked incredibly flustered. "Of course not, sir." With that said, he left and threw a glance back at them just before disappearing into the Records.

"Why are you checking your coffee for poison?" Jack asked her.

"He doesn't seem to like me very much," Buffy said. Plus, if she did die from poisoning, she wasn't ready to reveal her neat little coming-back-from-the-dead trick. The Doctor had said that Jack could do the same thing, but she didn't know if his team knew about that. They probably did given the inability in the family to maintain a secret cover, but she didn't want to risk it.

"Just give him some time to get to know you. But in the meantime, he is _not_ trying to poison you!"

"That's what you say!"

He just gave a slight laugh. "How's the moving coming?"

"Fine, I've still got everything in boxes, have no idea how to assemble a home entertainment system, have no idea when I'll even be able to get everything out of boxes and organised…"

"All right," Jack interrupted. "I was going to talk to you, but it can wait. Go home. Get stuff done. Nothing seems to be happening here. Why don't you take Ianto with you? He's brilliant with organising."

"Um… How should I put this? I'm afraid when he finds the box of my weapons he's going to go all Norman Bates on me. It's his job to know where all the swamps are, and I think I want my body found."

"He's not going to…" Jack threw up his hands. "He's not going to kill you."

"Jack, I know when someone doesn't like me."

"Well, can I help?" Owen interrupted. "I'd do anything to get out of here."

Buffy didn't object. Jack sighed. "Fine, both of you get out of here."

"Yes!" Owen said while Buffy grabbed her purse and followed him out.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"So the tea boy is out to kill ya?" Owen asked as he looked around at Buffy's flat. Well, he looked at the mountain of boxes in the flat that prevented him from seeing any of the flat itself. He actually wished he had let Jack force Ianto to help Buffy.

"Let's just say, I'm not going to stop checking my coffee for poison anytime soon."

"I don't know. Poison doesn't really seem his style."

"He's always in the kitchen, he's quiet, he deals with the cover up… it all adds up to the classic poisoner."

"Fair point. Where should we start?"

They stood side by side looking at the boxes.

"I have no idea."

Owen rubbed his hands together. "Right, I'll take the kitchen, you handle the bedroom and bathroom since you probably don't want me going through all those feminine unmentionables… even though, I have seen them all before."

"Right," Buffy gave a slight laugh frighteningly similar to Jack's. "You're a gentleman. Kitchen stuff should be over there."

Owen went to the bags that she pointed to while she grabbed bags of clothes and took them up the small set of stairs to the bedroom.

"This it?" he yelled to her.

"I'm pretty much a disaster in the kitchen," she yelled back. "I didn't really think I needed anything."

"This will never do," he muttered as he looked at the can opener, set of silverware, couple of spoons, cups, plates, bowls, and one medium sized mixing bowl. He put it all away and made a list of things she would still need.

Buffy came back and looked over at him. "What are you doing?"

"Making a list, checking it twice," he said sarcastically. "You don't even have any kitchen knives."

"Don't need them." She pulled a set of fighting knives out of one of the boxes.

"You can't cook with those!"

"I can't cook at all."

"Then I'll teach you."

"You can cook? Dr. Harper, you never cease to amaze me… which is probably because I don't actually know you all that much yet. But I don't see why I have to learn. I know how to get take-out."

"We eat enough take-out at Torchwood. You need real food when you come home, doctor's orders. First rule, don't buy anything that won't keep more than a week if you aren't going to eat it within three hours. You never know when Torchwood will call or how long it will keep you."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Some time after Owen and Buffy left, Jack went in search of Ianto. He found him alone in the Records.

"Ianto, do you have a problem with the new recruit?" he asked, keeping his tone light and flirting.

"No sir," Ianto answered with only a quick glance at Jack.

"Can we cut the 'sir' right now? If there is a problem, I want to know about it."

"Jack, you left and then just came swanning back. And then you start asking about women at a hotel, and then you're bringing her on the team. Who is she, Jack? And why have you brought her here?"

"We need her," Jack said, completely serious now.

"Because Captain John said you needed a blonde?" Ianto muttered, but Jack heard it.

"Because she has three years UNIT experience and even more than that as a freelancer."

"She's only in her twenties!" Ianto protested in his head. But Jack had that look of knowing what Ianto was thinking.

"Ianto, I trust her enough for her to be on the team. I know it's difficult, but trust me if you can't trust her." He started to leave but said one last thing over his shoulder. "And tell her that you aren't going to poison her coffee!"

"I wouldn't be so sure," Ianto muttered to himself, even though he knew he wouldn't go that far. Jack said to trust him if Ianto couldn't trust this Buffy person. Well, that was the problem. He was only slowly beginning to trust Jack again, and something like this didn't help.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

From the way Owen was shifting around while shifting boxes, watching her closely, and hesitating before he said anything, Buffy knew he knew something and was getting the guts to ask her about it. Either that or he wanted to ask her on a date, but he seemed the kind of guy that wouldn't be this shy about that.

It was probably about her UNIT file. If the good doctor had noticed anything strange from those blood tests, he most likely looked up her UNIT file for explanations. She knew that he would find out about slayers. What he wouldn't find would be the reason behind the missing years. When Buffy first joined UNIT and heard about Torchwood, she learned about their Victorian mission to protect the world against the threat of the Doctor. Idiots. Luckily UNIT was large enough to protect the Doctor from Torchwood. But it seemed that with the fall of Torchwood One at Canary Wharf the mission had been cast aside. So UNIT considered the small numbers of Torchwood more of an annoyance than a threat, but they still made sure that no matter the person's clearance, no member of Torchwood could access anything they had on the Doctor.

That meant a mysterious blank in her record that Owen probably wanted explained.

He didn't get the chance, because just then both of their cell phones went off. They each had a message telling them to meet the team at an address.

"You drive," Buffy said as they left.

"Suits me."

When they were in the car, Buffy decided they might as well talk.

"So you looked up my UNIT records, didn't you?" she asked. "Find anything interesting?"

"A couple things. Vampires?"

"Yup."

"And you have super strength?"

"Yup."

"I'll believe that when I see it."

"Fair enough. Anything else?"

"No, I think that's it."

"Liar." She took a guess at what he might have found. "So is it me, or is it my dad you're wondering about?"

"You know?"

"That Jack is my biological father? Why do you think I'm here?"

"But you haven't told him?"

"Have you?"

"Yeah," he said a bit sheepishly… as sheepishly as Owen Harper could get. "It came out with the fact that you're not completely human. What are you and how did that bloody well happen half way through your life?"

"Long story that you aren't getting any time soon. And let's just say I'm half human and leave it at that."

They had arrived and got out of the car. The rest of Torchwood—minus the Coffee God—had also just arrived and Owen ran to check on the man still alive.

"Bloody hell," Owen swore as he looked at the guy.

Jack ordered Owen and Gwen to go to the hospital while Tosh and Buffy followed him to the scene of the crime. Buffy looked around the small flat while Jack dealt with the chatty policeman. The cop insisted on giving his opinion (usually useless in Buffy's experience) as Jack manoeuvred him out the door. Buffy couldn't help smiling at Jack's comment about hockey at his house.

"Making friends?" Tosh said, and Buffy could hear the wink-wink-nudge-nudge in her voice. Buffy was still amazed at how much of a flirt her father was, and she figured she still didn't know the half of it.

"Not really. What do we got?"

Buffy let them go over the facts of the window, the lack of a weapon on the scene, and who they thought did it. She reached out with her slayer senses to get a feel.

"Jack," Buffy said.

"Yeah," he answered while still bent looking at the cricket bat.

"Whatever it was, I don't think it was human. And it wasn't here long."

"How can you know that?" Tosh asked, but no one answered her.

Jack nodded and Buffy knew he'd take that in to be put with all the other pieces of the puzzle. They left, and Jack contacted Owen and told him to stay with the burglar. It was a short ride to the Hub where they all just waited. Ianto brought out a round of coffee. Buffy took hers and followed Jack into his office. It wasn't the best time, but after talking to Owen, she needed to have a chat with her father.

* * *

_Anyone spot the esoterically referenced history? Let me know what you think._


	13. Sleeper

_Dialogue taken from the Torchwood episode "Sleeper" and other random bits from various Buffy episodes. I didn't come up with it, I just changed it in this non-profit fanfic. _

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy sat down across from Jack and tentatively took that first sip of coffee. Not poisoned—yet. Jack gave the barest roll of his eyes, but he continued to go through the papers on his desk.

"There are two things I don't believe in: leprechauns and coincidences," she said. He just grinned, so she continued. "So here I am a slayer with UNIT experience who just suddenly quits her day job and runs off to another country—to a city with its own not-so-secret group of alien fighters. A city that slayers aren't really supposed to be in. And then when a complete stranger whose name I just happen to know asks me to join his merry little band of alien fighters, I say yes without any questions or hesitation."

She paused for effect, hoping he'd catch on. He still didn't say anything, so she continued once more.

"It's not a coincidence that I came here."

"So why did you?" He looked up from the paper he was holding.

"You." She gave a light laugh. "Turns out my deadbeat dad really isn't my dad at all. Owen told me you know."

"You want to talk about this _now_?"

"You mean talking about it while waiting for a burglar to wake up and tell us who the psycho alien was that ran him through with an as-of-yet unidentified weapon is a bad time?"

"There's a lot to cover and we may not have much time," he said.

"It shouldn't take that long. You probably have more questions than I do." She sighed. "I just wanted you to know that I know that you know that… too many knows. The questions can wait for now."

"Sure."

"And could we keep this just between us for now? Being the boss's daughter is a bit awkward."

"Yeah." He was smiling, but there was a sadness there she hadn't seen before. She didn't have any time to think about it, though. Tosh came in and said that Gwen had called. The man had died crying out to keep the woman away from him.

Soon the woman, Beth, was dragged into the Hub and down to the interrogation room. Buffy stood with Ianto and Owen while Jack and Gwen were playing Good Cop, Bad Cop. She had to admit that her dad was good with the scary. He would have been great beating Willy for information.

Jack stormed back up to them and Buffy watched Gwen play Good Cop with a bit of disinterest. Good Cop was never Buffy's strong suit, so she listened to Ianto and Jack instead of Gwen.

"'Just us, and this room, for as long as it takes?'" Ianto quietly repeated to Jack. "Terrifying."

"Really?" Jack asked.

"Absolutely. Shivers down my spine." Ianto's even and ironic tone briefly reminded Buffy of Oz—the sarcastic voice much like the serious voice.

"You don't look scared," Jack said.

"Oh, it… passed."

Jack growled and raised a fist. As he turned he caught Buffy's eye, and she just shrugged.

"Tosh, anything on the body scan?" Jack sat at his desk while everyone else gathered round in the office.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," she said while still looking at the computer screen.

"What about the light? Power surge?"

"Nothing from us. There was an electromagnetic build-up around her, but I can't see how she caused it."

"Same thing happened at the hospital, Jack." Owen said. "Can't be a coincidence."

"Or a leprechaun," Buffy said and everyone except Jack looked at her as if she had just said she was the Queen of England. "Because I don't believe in either of them."

"It's her, I know it is." Jack sat forward. "Okay, let's do some tests, see who or what we're dealing with."

"I'm on it." Owen left for his area.

"Leprechauns aside, what do you think?" Jack asked Buffy while Tosh continued typing at the computer.

Buffy shook her head. "She feels human."

"But?"

"There's something else, but it's just a nagging little feeling in the background. If she is an alien, I don't think she knows. I think it's buried deep inside. She's possessed, maybe?"

"Possessed?" Jack's eyes widened as he acknowledged the possibility.

"Is that likely?" Tosh asked.

"Of course," Jack said. "There are all sorts of hitchhikers and parasites in the universe. Remember Carys?"

Buffy didn't know who Carys was, but by Tosh's blush it was bound to be one hell of a story. "I know there are at least the Koosbanian shape stealers, the Pyroviles, or the Eknodines." She gave a shudder at the memory of the eye stock that came from the human host's mouth. The shape stealer was a more pleasant memory—since they stopped it before it took over a host—and she had only heard of the Pyroviles from Donna. "Also there's ghost or demon possession. Hyena possession is especially not of the good."

Tosh gave her a look that clearly said 'are you kidding me' while Jack laughed, then sobered.

"But that doesn't really explain _how_ she did it? Where's the weapon?" He went to talk to Gwen. Buffy still hated hospitals, so she decided to steer clear of the medical tests with Beth. She stayed with Tosh while Ianto's voice cut through the hub.

"We don't sniff the subetheric resonator."

Buffy had no idea what that was, why no one should sniff it, or why anyone would even want to sniff it. She watched Tosh work for a moment, and she realised that Tosh was a bit like Willow before the magic. If she was, then she'd be a good friend for Buffy in the group.

"So who is Carys?" Buffy asked in an attempt to make small talk.

"She was a girl possessed by a gas-based alien that fed on human orgasmic energy."

"When you say…"

"Yeah," Tosh interrupted so Buffy didn't have to finish. "Jack put it best when he said her victims 'came and went.' They turned into piles of dust after..." She rolled her head to finish the sentence.

"Wow." Buffy had seen strange things, but that was definitely up there with the strangest.

"It was Gwen's first day too."

They both started laughing. That was one hell of a first alien to handle.

"So you're a vampire slayer?" Tosh asked out of nowhere.

"God, did someone send out a memo that I don't know about? Or am I worse than I thought at the secret identity thing?"

"Who else knows?" Tosh asked with amusement, not too fazed by Buffy's dramatics.

"So far, Jack and Owen. How do you know?"

"I looked at your UNIT records. Ianto probably has too."

"Gee, everyone wants to know about me. How keen. You don't seem too surprised by the whole vampire and slayer thing."

"With this job?" Tosh laughed. "Also, my family is from Japan, and they tell a lot of stories about spirits, demons, and warriors. There's the possibility some of them could be based on fact. I've always thought there were more than just humans on this planet. Aliens and science or demons and magic, it's all the same in the end, isn't it?"

"Good thing too or I'd be out of a job. Huh, maybe it's actually a _bad_ thing."

Tosh smiled. "You don't like our job?"

"Protecting the world against the wigsome? When I was first called to be the Slayer, I hated it. Now I don't know anything else."

They were then serious and quiet. Jack was yelling and then he took Beth down to the cells.

"What happened?" Tosh asked Owen.

"Bloody woman snapped the needle and the scalpel," he grumbled.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"I couldn't put so much as a dent in her skin, and still she says she's human."

"The scans show…" Tosh began.

"Then the scans are wrong. There's no way that woman is human."

Tosh quickly turned back to her computer; she was faster with it than Buffy was in a graveyard fight. It wasn't too long before Jack returned alone.

"Where's Beth?" Gwen asked as they all now stood together.

"In the cells," Jack said curtly. "Ianto, Owen, I need you both with me."

They left and returned with a strange chair, heavy cables, and a box. When Jack opened the box, Tosh frowned.

"You said we weren't allowed to use that again."

"It's just a mind probe," Jack said firmly.

Ianto looked up behind him. "Remember what happened last time you used it?"

"That was different," Jack said without turning while Ianto and Owen set up the chair. "And that species has extremely high blood pressure."

"Oh, right, their heads must explode all the time." Jack turned to glare at Ianto while Gwen's and Buffy's eyes went wide. Tosh tilted her head with disapproval.

"Jack, you can't do this," Gwen said. "What if you're wrong? If she is human, it'll kill her."

"I second that 'you can't do this,'" Buffy said. This was getting a bit too much like the Initiative. Cells full of vicious creatures, scientific equipment that fries the brain…

"I'm not wrong," Jack said. "We have to find out what she is."

"Take it easy, Jack," Tosh warned. "Stop at the first sign of trouble."

"Or the first sign of exploding," Ianto said while sitting in the chair and running his hand over the arm restraints.

"Gwen," Jack said quietly. "Bring her up."

Gwen reluctantly agreed and left. Ianto began shaking and acting like he was being electrocuted. Jack yelled at him and he stopped and got up. Owen just shook his head at the Welshman.

"Jack," Buffy said. "Interrogation methods are one thing, but this is sounding more like torture."

"We do what we have to do," he answered.

"No, we do what's right."

"Buffy, there are some things that require harsher methods. We have to find out what she is, and if this is the only way to do that… then we'll do it."

"Is it the only way?" Buffy persisted.

"Do you need to leave while we do this?"

"No, someone has to be here to stop you."

"No," he said slowly in a tone she hadn't heard from him before. "You are here to take orders. If you can't do that, then you are going to have to leave."

Tosh and Owen were staring at her. Just from his face, Buffy could tell that Jack wasn't going to back down. It eerily reminded her of those early days when Professor Walsh gave her orders instead of answers to her questions.

Gwen then returned with Beth and they got her situated in the chair. Then Jack began explaining the probe to Beth.

"Will it hurt?" Beth asked, as anyone would.

"Yeah," Jack said simply.

"Your bedside manner's rubbish," Beth said.

"You should see his manners in bed," Gwen rambled nervously. "They're atrocious. Apparently. So I've heard."

"Oh, they are," Ianto agreed. "I remember this one…"

Jack cleared his throat pointedly. Buffy looked at Ianto and her father. They were sleeping together? Which team did her father play for?

Gwen told Beth a little more about how things were going to go to comfort her. Then Jack told Tosh to start. Almost immediately Beth starting crying out in pain. Owen said it was safe, but Buffy didn't believe it. Jack asked what she was and where she was from, but Beth insisted she was human.

"Go deeper," Jack ordered.

Tosh hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Do it!" he shouted.

"Jack, stop this!" Buffy said and started going into slayer mode. He must have seen that, because he then gripped her arms and brought his face angrily close to hers.

"Go," he said quietly; he didn't need to shout the order.

He then nodded to Ianto. Ianto gently, but firmly, guided Buffy to the cog door. With one last look at the painful scene, Buffy left. She wanted to be near her father, to get to know him. She wanted to continue being part of a group protecting the earth. But if that meant being part of _this_… she wasn't sure if she could do it.

All her frustration and anger built up in the need to hit something. Back in Sunnydale there was Spike's nose, and with UNIT there was a sandbag just for her. Here, there was the wall.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

After the probe was taken off Beth, Jack had Gwen take her back down to the cells. He asked Ianto to go retrieve Buffy and then everyone meet for a debriefing. Ianto came into the tourist office and found Buffy sitting on the floor and a fist-shaped hole in the brick wall.

"Um… uh…" He was unable to articulate any sort of coherent thought.

"I didn't like the look of that wall. Needed a bit of the Martha Stewart touch."

"Right," Ianto said with a calm nod. "Jack wants everyone for a meeting. He knows what Beth is. She's doing fine now, by the way. And she is an alien."

With a scoff, Buffy stood and walked back down into the Hub. Ianto followed.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

A monitor was set up to keep an eye on Beth in her cell. Buffy was shown the video of Jack talking to the alien part of Beth, and then everyone at the table looked to Jack for an explanation.

"She's a sleeper agent. It all clicked when I saw the implant."

"A sleeper agent?" Owen asked. "Who for?"

"No one knows very much. They don't leave survivors. Official designation is Cell 1-1-4. They infiltrate planets, adapting their bodies, gathering intelligence, sometimes for years, watching, until they're ready to take over."

Gwen said what they were all thinking, "Okay, that's... creepy."

"If we're lucky, she's the first," Jack continued. "They send an advance guard to gather intel. Give them false memories so they blend in. She has no idea she's not human. Her real self must have taken over briefly, killed the burglars. Self preservation."

"Told you she did it," Owen said quietly to Gwen.

"The point is, by the time they attack, they know every single thing about the planet. Tosh."

Tosh stood. "The implant gathers information. Normal X-rays don't show it. She's projecting a false image. It's got all this data stored inside it."

Everyone stared at the images on the screen, shocked. Ianto's mouth hung open.

Tosh continued. "This is a force-field generator—it creates an impervious layer above the  
skin, just a nanometre thick. That's why you couldn't get the needle inside her."

Owen rolled his head. "Right, well… God, look, they even know about us."

Sure enough, up on the screen were profiles of the Torchwood team.

"They know more about this place than I do." Ianto angrily hit the table. "Nobody knows more than I do."

"You wanna bet?" Buffy asked him with a smirk. He just glared at her. She then addressed everyone else. "Okay, how many are there? Do we have a plan?"

"For a start," he answered, "I think we should tell her."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Once again Jack and Gwen spoke with Beth. When they came back the discussion of what to do about her started. Tosh suggested freezing her and everyone agreed… albeit somewhat reluctantly. Everyone except Buffy, but she didn't say anything. She felt like an outsider and see wasn't sure if she wanted in. She was so used to killing and asking questions later—not poking it for information and keeping it locked up. She was regretting leaving UNIT now. Her team had been sent out to search and destroy, or search and _persuade_ to leave peacefully. There had been a small lockup area and a few interrogation rooms, but nothing like here at Torchwood.

And yet, Jack had travelled with the Doctor, and the rest of the team seemed like good people.

So Buffy watched in silence while they froze Beth and put her away in storage. For the one full alien among them, she seemed the most human. Buffy was glad that Jack promised just to kill Beth if nothing could be done for her, to prevent her from hurting anyone. Death was better than eternal sleep.

After they took care of the frozen woman, everything was quiet and back to normal, as if Beth hadn't even been there. But then the lights went out and the alarms went off.

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" Jack demanded.

"Oh, shit!" Gwen exclaimed.

"What happened?" Jack asked her.

"Beth's gone."

"I thought she was frozen!"

"She was!" Owen shouted. "All her vitals were at zero."

"Checking systems, command history," Tosh said as she typed.

Jack walked over to her. "What did she do? Iii-is it a virus, a lockdown?"

"No, she just turned off the lights."

"What is it with her and light bulbs?" Jack growled. The lights then started turning back on.

"She went through the tunnels," Tosh said.

"Time to change the locks again," Ianto frowned.

"No, no. She knew everything about this place. It was all in her arm. The tunnels, layout, security codes. She could've shut us down, blown us up—anything!

"But she didn't," Gwen said.

"She wouldn't," Buffy added. "Remember her last words to you, Jack?"

"No, I swear, she was frozen," Owen said.

"Tosh, you switched off the transceiver?" Jack asked.

"Yes".

"Are you sure?"

"Well, I was until you asked. Unless it was another false image."

Owen looked like he was getting an idea. "Hang on, hang on, hang on. Everything about her was a lie. All of her vital signs were a false image. She can fool the equipment. She can tell it what we're expecting to see. So, you know, she gets scared and it projects an increased heart rate. We try and freeze it and it does the opposite."

Tosh was catching on too. "Simulating that much information would need a huge amount of energy. No wonder she had a big electromagnetic field."

"Well, that's why the lights blew every time she got upset."

"So they blew up because she was using a lot of energy to fake an increased heart rate? To look like a scared human instead of a calm alien?" Buffy asked to clarify Owen's theory. He nodded.

"So, what's she doing?" Tosh asked. "Did we activate her?"

"No," Buffy said, thinking she had a good idea of what happened. If someone just found out she wasn't what she thought, that she had to be locked up, she'd want to say goodbye and get that last bit of familiar comfort.

"She couldn't be activated," Jack said. "If she was, we'd all be dead. We took her off the network. She has some other agenda."

"She wants to see her husband," Buffy said like a true Southern Californian blonde stating the obvious. The "duh" was evident enough in her tone. Cordelia would have been proud.

Everyone looked at her and then to Jack for orders.

"Gwen, with me. The rest of you stay here and let me know if you see anything happening."

"Shouldn't I go with you?" Buffy asked. She was recruited to be the muscle, and it might be needed to _convince_ Beth to come back.

"You aren't armed yet," Jack said. "You stay here."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy was sitting and playing with a yo-yo while they waited. Tosh had her comm on so that everyone could hear when Jack called.

"Tosh?" Jack's voice came through. "We got her. It's all over. We're on our way."

Then they heard an explosion and the whole Hub shook.

"What's going on?" Tosh asked as she looked at her monitors.

"What the hell was that?" Jack's voice asked.

"Petrol tanker," Tosh answered. Owen was coming up to join them. "Looks like someone wanted to take out the M4 link road for some rea… No! It's not the road. There's an underground fuel pipeline. It's a special fuel supply for the military. They use it in emergencies."

"Not anymore," Owen said. "Hold on. I've got a report coming through. Uh… Patrick Grainger's been murdered."

"Who?" Buffy asked.

"Leader of the council, stabbed several times in the chest, and once in the forehead. Sound familiar?"

"Nope, not a bit," Buffy muttered sarcastically.

"Why would anyone want to kill him?" Gwen's voice asked.

Ianto spoke up from his screens just below. "He's also the city co-ordinator. Takes charge of the city in case of major emergencies. Has all the security protocols."

"Well, how do you know that?" Owen asked.

"I know everything," Ianto said and pointed. "And it says so on the bottom of the screen."

Jack's voice came through the comm again. "Tosh, Owen, it's starting. It's happening right now!"

The four of them all started going through the incoming reports and telling Jack, but then a painful feedback sound echoed over the comm.

"Ow!" Buffy said. "That wasn't good."

"No," Tosh agreed. "They just took down the entire telephone network."

"That's really not good," Buffy said.

"Can't you just hook something up?" Owen was trying to dial on his cell phone.

"No, I can't just hook something up!" Tosh said. "The entire telephone network is down!"

"What about mobile connection?" Owen asked.

Tosh repeated it slowly. "The entire telephone network is down!"

Ianto joined them while talking. "Mobiles, landlines, tin cans with bits of string. Everything. Absolutely everything. No phones, phones all broken. Hello? Anyone there? No, 'cause the phones aren't working."

Buffy couldn't help the small laugh at Ianto holding up his hand like a phone and explaining it to Owen. It seemed Ianto could be funny when he wasn't trying to poison her. But she could be funny in a crisis too.

"I think they're saying we can't call Jack, Owen," Buffy said, continuing the sarcasm at his expense.

"What about we try…"

Tosh interrupted him angrily. "There is no way of getting in touch with Jack! No way!"

Then there was that mechanical feedback noise and Jack's voice through a radio. "Tosh, Owen, can you hear me?"

"Jack!" Tosh shouted as she ran to the radio and picked up the handheld speaker. "Thank God. What happened?"

"There's a cell, it's active. Four including Beth—two are dead. We're tracking the last guy now. If we can get to him before he does anything, we can stop this."

"What can I do?" Tosh asked.

"He's heading for an abandoned farm just outside the city. I need to know what's out there."

The guys looked at the map while the girls read the information on Tosh's screen.

"Where the hell's he going?" Owen asked. "There's nothing there."

"Nothing on the surface," Buffy answered.

Ianto had run to get something and was talking while he walked back down to them. "This is as far back as they go. There used to be a coal mine in the cliff. The Army sealed it off in the '40s… doesn't say why."

Tosh adjusted her glasses. "Let me see if I can get into the military files. Come on, guys, that wasn't even difficult. You disappoint me."

"It's almost obscene what you do to security systems," Ianto muttered.

"Oh, God," Tosh said.

"What is it?" Jack asked from the radio.

"The mineshaft. The military are using it for storage. Nuclear warheads. Ten of them. Nobody's supposed to know, not even us."

"That's how it starts," they heard Gwen say.

"No heavy weapons," Jack said.

"Exactly! They don't need any! They use our own against us."

"We left the key under the doormat. All you need is to walk in and take over."

"Please tell me you can stop this," Tosh said to them.

"Going as fast as we can," Jack answered with a false calm. "If we don't, we won't feel a thing. We're all at the centre of the blast radius."

"That's comforting," Tosh said.

"Like a bed of nails," Buffy muttered.

Jack's voice came over the radio cheerfully. "Come on! Have a little faith! With a dashing hero like me on the case, how can we fail?"

Ianto nodded. "He is dashing; you have to give him that."

Owen broke the radio connection. "And what if they can't stop it?"

"They'll stop it." Tosh didn't sound completely confident.

"Yeah, but if they can't?" Owen persisted.

"Then it's all over," Ianto stated.

Owen gave a slight sigh. "Let's all have sex."

The other three stared at him blankly.

"And I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy was playing with her yo-yo again, this time in the lab. Beth came in and just looked at the odd beakers and tubes off to one side. Then she looked at Buffy.

"I don't know how you can be so calm like that. Everyone almost died because of me. I could have been the one to destroy the world."

"Nah," Buffy said. "On the great apocalypse scale, I'd say that was only a three. It's when you get over seven that I'd start worrying."

"You're American, but you're not like him. You're not a soldier."

"No, I'm a warrior."

"What's the difference?" Beth asked.

"I don't do orders well?" Buffy gave an ironic laugh. "No. And yes. It's about duty, but not to commands and orders. It's a duty to keep fighting for what's right, for all the little everyday parts of life, for humanity."

"But I'm not human."

"No, you're the most human of all of us… and a warrior. They've put you through hell, and you've fought for your humanity and held on to it."

"But I can feel it slipping." Buffy could hear the fear. But before she could answer, Gwen walked in.

"We're set with the cryogenics when you're ready."

"Will it work this time?" Beth asked.

Buffy left to let Gwen comfort Beth. Gwen had been closer to Beth, and she was the best one to help Beth get ready. But Buffy felt that being frozen was a bit like running away from the problem. Then again, Buffy's natural slayer instinct was always going to be to fight. In this case there wasn't much else Torchwood could do.

Just as Buffy was down in the Hub and looking at the autopsy bay, there were shouts from back up in the lab.

"I won't let you freeze me!" Beth shouted while holding her arm-blade to Gwen's neck. "I'll kill you all!"

"Let her go!" The whole team came running with their guns out. Jack, shirt still open, pushed Buffy behind him while they all pointed their guns up at Beth.

"No!" Gwen shouted. "No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, don't shoot! It's a trick. She won't hurt me. She won't hurt me."

"Move away from her now!" Tosh shouted.

"Everybody, calm down!" Jack shouted and then spoke softer. "Beth… you don't want to do this. Let Gwen go."

"I'll kill her first, then all of you, then the rest of your miserable species!"

Buffy could hear the hesitation in her voice. "Jack…"

"Beth, please!" Gwen kept pleading with her. Like Buffy, she knew what was happening. "They will kill you. You have proved to be better than that; you helped us to stop the invasion. You can be human. Please! Beth!"

"Jack, if I could just…" He kept one arm in front of Buffy while the other still pointed the gun.

"Not human enough."

"Beth…"

"Goodbye, Gwen. Good luck." The last words were no more than a whisper, but Buffy heard them clearly.

"Jack, just let me…"

Beth pulled back and raised her blade. Gwen fell out of the way while the bullets fired and shot Beth down. Owen and Jack each raced up the opposing staircases and kept their guns on Beth's body.

"She wanted you to shoot her!" Gwen shouted. "She used her last shred of humanity to do this."

"We couldn't take that chance," Owen told her. "She must have known that."

"She did," Jack said. "She just wanted to make it easier for us."

Buffy understood Gwen's pain and anger, but she didn't share it. Beth had chosen this, chosen how to end it. And in Buffy's eyes, even though she didn't like it and would have changed things, Beth had won her war with the alien.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Everyone was slowly heading home. Gwen left Jack's office and shouted a goodbye to everyone. Owen hurried out not long after. Buffy walked into Jack's office and watched him looking at the blade that had broken from Beth's arm.

"See, you need me carrying a sword, not a gun," she said.

"And here I thought you would have seen that you need a gun. Why do we keep having this conversation?"

"I don't do orders well, and I definitely don't do guns."

"Buffy, with this job, you have to take orders. What happened today… it's your first official day on the job, so I'll over look it. But I can't have you defying me all the time."

"Do I want this job anymore after today? Owen said I'm not human. Are you going to hook _me_ up to that probe if I don't tell you what I am?"

"No," Jack answered. "I would never…"

"But you did it to _her_. You did it to her." She sighed. "I'm sorry, Jack, but from what I've seen today, I don't know."

"What would you have us do?" he asked becoming defensive and angry.

"Act like decent human beings! Mind probes, locking up Weevils indefinitely, probably doing who knows what sort of experiments—doesn't that register as wrong?"

"We don't experiment on the Weevils; we just observe."

"You say that now, but how long until that changes?"

"We do what we have to do. You need to learn that some things have to be done for the greater good. If killing Beth is a problem with you…"

"It's not the killing. I look at the Weevils and think that if they're a danger to humans, you kill them. If a dog is rabid, you kill it instead of just locking it up. What happens if all the Weevils you've got go all Cujo on you?"

He didn't answer.

"You don't know anything about me. You say you know what a Slayer is, but do you? What do you know? That there was one in every generation to stand alone against the vampires? That's how I've been… the one and only called to make the scary things in the night run in fear. And I didn't have a choice! There were so many times I wanted to be normal: normal hanging with friends, having a normal boyfriend. Instead some mystical energy turns me into a killer, the ultimate hunter. Death is my gift. Everyone around me dies or leaves. I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, since you chose this line of work that you'd understand… that I could have a family again." She stopped and wiped the tears that had fallen.

"I'll stay for now, but if there isn't another side to Torchwood…" She let the threat hang unsaid and left.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

_And yes, the Eknodines are from the weird dream in a Dr11 episode, but there is nothing to suggest that they aren't real just because they were part of a mass hallucination._


	14. Research and Conversations

_Sorry about the long wait. I'm still having trouble getting back into this story. But if you are a fan of the show **Psych, **check out my new one shot crossover of Psych and Torchwood. Really it's more of a Torchwood cameo than a crossover... So if you watch Psych, read **Torchwait for iiiiit...**  
_

* * *

Buffy went to work the next day feeling uneasy. She wasn't sure how Jack would act around her after she had unloaded everything on him the night before.

She walked in through the tourist office and saw Ianto finishing repairing the hole in the wall.

"I kind of liked the hole," she said.

"Not the image we want here," Ianto responded in his normal tone—or was it his sarcastic tone? She couldn't tell through the accent and his glaring at her.

"What kind of image do you want for your public entrance to your secret base?" She looked around at the drab walls cluttered with pictures and flyers.

"One that doesn't have a fist-shaped hole in the wall," he replied.

"Suit yourself," Buffy said with false cheeriness and then headed down into the Hub. She saw Owen and Tosh at their stations so she sat down in between them. "Anyone know what I'm supposed to do?"

"Jack hasn't told you?" Tosh asked.

"I think I'm supposed to help mostly with the field work… but _El Presidente_ doesn't want me in the field until I start carrying a gun."

"I don't see what the problem is," Owen said. "How could you not have used one before? Why do you hate them so much?"

"I don't know," Buffy replied, thinking about when she was shot… dead. "They just seem so… gunny. I've used a rocket launcher before, and that was cool. But for the everyday stuff I like the hands on approach… in a holding a knife or stake kind of way. Anyways, what are you guys working on? Can I help?"

"I'm just running a few programs," Tosh said. Buffy recognised the tone: Tosh didn't think Buffy would be interested because no one else ever had been before.

"Like what?" Buffy asked. She might not understand it, but interest was worth more than understanding sometimes.

"Oh no, now you've done it," Owen grumbled. Tosh still looked hesitant and a bit ashamed. Luckily Jack yelled for Owen and some report he needed from the doctor. Owen left to see to that.

"You don't have to pretend to be interested," Tosh said to Buffy. "I know it's not something anyone really wants to hear about."

"I'm not pretending, and I do want to hear." Buffy saw that Tosh was still not sure. "Hey, I may not seem to be the best and the brightest, but I'm curious and interested in what you do. So, what do you do while you're here doing whatever it is you're doing?"

Tosh blinked, but then decided to go for it. "Well, I have a translation program that has collated every scrap of alien language we've got, and broken it down into binary threads to see if there is a common derivation." She paused and then looked away. "I know—you have no idea what I'm talking about."

"It's searching for 'Latin' in the all the French, Spanish, and Englishes of the universe. Only not with those specific languages because I'm using a metaphor."

"Yes, that's it exactly," Tosh said, a bit impressed. Buffy herself was a bit impressed. Back in high school she wouldn't have understood a word of what Tosh said. But after travelling with the Doctor, and then with UNIT, she found herself unusually smarter and knowledgeable with the big words and ideas. She tried not to show it most of the time; it was still wigging her out.

"So, have you found anything in common?"

"In some. I've been running the program for just over a year. We keep encountering more languages, so I don't know when I'll have an answer. Maybe never."

"Have you accessed the UNIT language databases?"

"Some," Tosh replied.

"Maybe I can help you get into a few more?" Buffy said conspiratorially.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

While waiting for Owen to finish and give him the report he needed, Jack watched his team. Gwen was on the phone with Rhys while working at her computer. No doubt they were discussing wedding plans. He couldn't stop the grin that came with that thought. It was good that she was still holding on to her life; it couldn't be easy for her. Then there was Tosh and Buffy sitting close and laughing. It was so different to his daughter's tears yesterday.

His daughter.

For a man full of surprises, he didn't get many that often. But boy did he get one hell of a surprise with Buffy Summers. He knew he could have children; it was possibly the worst of the pains of immortality. Someone once said that a parent should never have to bury their child—he couldn't do anything but bury them in the end. An optimist might look at it from another angle, that his children would never have to go through the grief of seeing him die. But Alice had made it more than clear that it wasn't a comfort for her. She wanted nothing to do with him because it was too painful for her to age while he remained the same.

Buffy didn't know. Would she _want_ to get to know him, if she knew the truth?

He'd need to know her better to answer that question. At the moment, as so painfully pointed out to him last night, he didn't know her at all. When she said she became the Slayer at only fifteen it knocked him a bit. Reading the date on a file was one thing, but hearing it from her was something else. He had read the UNIT file and had been impressed. Beyond impressed—it was a big part of why he just suddenly hired her. But he hadn't looked at what her life was like before that. There was no personnel record. So now he had to do some detecting/hacking to put together a picture of what she had to deal with in high school.

He wasn't surprised by the complaints of violence and fighting at Hemry High in LA in her school record. He _was_ surprised that she was expelled when she burnt down the school's gym. Then she transferred to Sunnydale High.

He found a website dedicated to the odd occurrences in Sunnydale. It was a compendium of newspaper articles and publicly released police reports. It was all organised by year, so he looked at the years she was in high school.

There were multiple reports of death at the school: boy found in locker with neck wound, teacher found dead in closet, principal eaten by wild animals, suicide victim found hanging in computer lab, dancer found with heart cut out, boy-genius found with brain removed, several parents killed at Parent's Night, man found dead outside the library, computer teacher found in librarian's home with a broken neck, girl found dead inside the library with other injured victims… The list just kept going on and on.

But the list of strange occurrences not necessarily involving death was even longer: spontaneous cheerleader combustion, spiders coming out of textbooks, giant flies, gangs on PCP, blocked sewers resulting in thousands of snakes in the cafeteria, janitor shootiong a teacher (claimed he was possessed and never saw the gun before—it was never even found), swim team on steroids creating fish creatures, adults acting like teenagers, snow on Christmas, witch-hunt by a group called MOO, cafeteria lady attempting mass murder, principal eaten by the mayor-turned-giant-snake at the graduation, school blown up with snake inside. And that wasn't even the half of it.

He wondered just how stupid the police force there was. Jack had experience with the police in Cardiff turning a blind eye and handing it over to Torchwood, but nothing like the complete denial the Sunnydale force must have been suffering.

But all of this Buffy had to deal with. He wondered how she had handled it all by herself. Jack decided that he needed to contact Joyce and have a chat over the phone with her about their daughter. That's when he discovered that Joyce had died—only a couple months before Buffy's presumed death and disappearance.

The only thing that Jack could think was that he should have been there, and it was a painful thought.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy expected to hear something that day from Jack, but he avoided her. It left her feeling awkward all day. The looks Owen kept sending her way didn't help any either. He picked up on her tension and Jack's conspicuous absence from the central Hub area, and looked as if he wanted to say something about it to one of them. Buffy didn't want him any more involved—this was just between her and Jack.

The day came and went. Reports about Beth and the invading aliens were written and filed away by Ianto, and then everyone went home. Buffy was restless and about to leave her flat on patrol when her cell phone rang.

"Summers," she said into it, but she couldn't keep the frustration out of her voice at being delayed.

"Something got your knickers in a twist, Slayer?"

"Just when I'm about to go out and slay evil things, one of them calls me so I can't leave."

"You'll get them right enough; waitin' makes 'em cocky and stupid."

"And that doesn't remind me of anyone," she mumbled sarcastically, knowing full well that he'd hear her. "What do you want, Spike?"

"Thought I'd see how this new group of yours is treating you."

"Fine," she said. "Great even."

"Great, huh? Then why are you so eager to go out and rough up some demons?"

Stupid vampire and his being so observant. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Right, 'cause you can't be sharing your problems with the evil undead."

His bitterness made Buffy change her mind. She blurted out the question that had been nagging at the back of her mind since she left the room with the mind probe interrogation. "What was it like with the chip? How painful was it?"

Spike hesitated, probably puzzled by the question. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Buffy. It was the worst pain I'd ever felt, and I've felt pain. I learned how to be a vampire from the great git of a Prince of Painful Punishments and Torture. Best as I can describe it, it was like a white hot knife cutting through my brain. There was this one time… but you probably don't want to hear about that. But yeah, it was bloody painful. Literally with the nosebleeds and all."

There was silence as she took that in. "I'm so sorry, Spike."

"Here now, what's this? THE Buffy Summers—Slayer with not just a stick but a whole bloody javelin of righteousness stuck up her arse—is apologising to the big, bad vampire?" What started as joking sarcasm turned very serious. "What happened, luv?"

Buffy confessed the whole thing to him. From the moment she met Jack, to first entering Torchwood, to the crime scene and all the way to its conclusion with Beth's death, and then at last her breakdown in front of her father. It was so much easier to tell Spike all of it over the phone—it was so much easier to talk to him period. There wasn't the annoying smirk, or that gaze and head tilt that seemed to see right through her. She didn't have to remind herself that she was talking to an evil vampire that had killed two of her kind and tried to make her number three. It was just Buffy and an old friend she could confide in over the phone.

When she finished, there was nothing but silence.

"Say something," she said.

"What do you want me to say?" he asked.

"Anything, Spike. You always have something to say."

"Not this time. Buffy, I want to tell you to get out of there, come back home, come here, but this isn't home anymore for you. You have to suss out where that is for yourself. Wherever it is—if it's there with your dad or travelling the stars with that doctor of yours—as long as you're happy, then that's where you should be."

"But? I hear a 'but face' in there."

"But… I miss you, Buffy." There was a brief awkward pause, but he quickly ended it before she could say anything. "Anyways, I think you should stick it out with your dad. It's what you wanted, and you never back down from a fight. I know that better than I know anything."

"But if Torchwood is like the Initiative… I can't be a part of something like that again."

"And you won't. Maybe they aren't like that; maybe if they are you can change them. You changed me from a monster into something just a bit better."

Buffy shifted awkwardly. She could picture him doing that head tilt and staring thing, just like that moment on the stairs before going to rescue Dawn. He was saying just about the same thing again too.

"Yeah, well… you were never _all that_ to begin with. I mean, gosh Spike, you were just pathetic."

"Hey! If I hadn't got that chip in my head…"

"Yeah, yeah, you can just keep saying that, but we both know it's not true."

"Do you know how many times I came _so_ close? If it hadn't have been for that bloody organ keepin' me in that sodding chair, I would have succeeded where that enormous head of hair gel failed."

"Yeah right! I could have taken you even then."

"Really? What about that parent thing then that night at the school? I was breathing down… well, maybe not breathing… but I was right there and I was just about to have myself one good day, if not for that _axe_ from your mo…" As caught up in the memory as he was, he trailed off suddenly. "I'm sorry, pet. I didn't mean to…"

"No, Spike. It's fine. Mom's been gone a long time. And it's good to remember all the good things about her—especially her whacking your sorry head."

"Yeah," he gave a slight chuckle. "She was one hell of a lady, your mum. Reminded me of my own a bit. And no matter who your dad is, you can be proud to be your mother's daughter."

"Thank you, Spike. I am, and I'll remember that."

The mood once again uncomfortably serious, Spike cleared his throat. "Better be lettin' you get in your spot of violence. G'night, Buffy."

"Goodbye, Spike. Thank you again for putting things in perspective for me."

"Thanks and an apology. You sure the world's not ending?"

"Not the right time of year yet," she replied. On that last laugh, they both hung up.


	15. Little Bits of History Repeating

Talking with Spike had been surprisingly helpful—but then again, Spike had been surprising her ever since she returned from her trip with the Doctor. It was hard to put it all on the soul, because he still was so… Spike. He still smoke, drank, swore, and was generally annoying. So once again, she just put him into the back of her mind and didn't think about him.

She left on a patrol of newer graveyards she had looked up during her uneventful day at Torchwood. According to the Watchers' records, Cardiff had never had much demon activity. It was, she now knew, because the Rift energy was unsettling. But that didn't mean there weren't—as Spike called them—"nasties" out there to be killed. They just stayed a bit more low profile. But that didn't pose a problem for an angry and frustrated Slayer. She took out a nest of five vamps, a pair of Fyarl demons, and an eventual total of three weevils throughout the night. The first weevil had been easy. The vamps, not even a blip on the problem radar. The second weevil, an exhilarating challenge. The Fyarl demons roughed her up a bit, making the last weevil a bit more difficult.

When she got home she took a tally of her injuries: one black eye swollen shut, a split lip, three long and deep gashes on her right arm, and several other bruises over various parts of her body. She showered, bandaged the gashes, and then went to bed feeling a bit more relaxed than before.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The next morning, Buffy stood in front of the mirror debating how much cover-up to use. Even if she put an inch-thick layer it wouldn't hide the fact that she had a black eye. The split lip was almost healed, and most of the bruises were fading, but the gashes still needed to be bandaged, and her eye still looked like a sunset.

With one last look and a "what the hell" nonchalance, Buffy left for work.

She was early, and waked in to see Owen and Jack discussing something while Ianto was handing them coffee. Jack saw her first.

"Whoa!"

Owen turned. "Bloody hell!" He rushed over and looked at her eye, and then the bandaging on her arm. "I'll need to look at this. You were in one piece last time I saw, so what happened?"

"Probably out _slaying_," Ianto said. He walked off muttering something about getting the crazy woman a cup of non-poisoned coffee.

"I'm fine," Buffy said. "Believe me, I've had worse."

"Still, I want Owen to look you over, make sure everything's all right." Jack backed up the order with a firm look. "What were you doing last night?"

"My job," she answered while letting Owen take her down to his pit. Jack followed and stood at the railing above while Owen took off her bandage and examined the wound.

"Getting injured is your job?" Jack asked.

"No, it's just an occupational hazard," she snapped back. "There's only one rule for my job: don't die. I didn't, so yay me!" She didn't mention that now her one rule wasn't worth much anymore since she didn't stay dead anymore.

"You should have called for backup," Jack told her.

She hissed while Owen applied an antiseptic on the wounds. "I don't need backup. I can handle myself. But now I have the happy Buffy bonus of the services of Dr. Harper here." She smiled at him.

He didn't return it, and only nodded his thanks sarcastically while rebandaging her arm. "All right, the wound's fine. You did a pretty decent job of taking care of it. I recommend you get some ice for that eye. For a normal person, those gashes and that eye's gonna take at least a couple of weeks to fully heal. How long to you expect it to take you?"

"With the Slayer healing? A couple days." She looked up at Jack. "See, I'm fine."

"I won't argue with you this time," he said. "But remember, you're part of a _team_ now. We work together."

They heard the cog door open and Gwen shouted a cheerfully Welsh good morning to everyone. Jack asked her to see him in his office.

"Any aliens to fight this morning?" Buffy asked Owen while he put the supplies away.

"I would have thought you'd have had enough fighting."

"Not possible," she said.

"No aliens today. Just the scheduled waking up of a frozen World War One soldier."

"A frozen soldier? Why was he frozen? And why are we scheduled now to wake him up?" She watched as he pulled out other instruments and set them to one side.

"It's a thing." He was about to say more when Jack yelled to see if he was ready. They both left the pit and saw Tosh entering the Hub. "Is that a dress, Tosh?"

"I do believe it is, Owen," she answered.

"It's cute," Buffy said, but she thought the jeans underneath were a bit silly. But that seemed to be the fashion in the city right then. Gwen walked by asking Jack where someone was and they all followed the Captain to the morgue. Tosh was staring at her eye.

"I know, I know. Just a small fight with a few weevils last night. Any special reason for the dress?" Buffy asked Tosh as they walked.

"No, no reason."

"He's been here for ninety years, longer than any of us," Jack was saying. "Any of you."

"So, frozen?" Buffy asked.

"Torchwood have used alien cryogenics since Victorian times," Tosh explained. "They froze Tommy in 1918."

"So he's 24 or 114 years old," Jack continued. "I know which one I'd choose."

They took Tommy down to the table in Owen's pit, and all watched from above as Owen began the process of waking him up with Tosh there assisting.

"We have to wake him up every twelve months or so," Owen explained while he worked. "Well, defrost him. One day only, then back in the freezer."

"Why?" Gwen asked.

"Check he still works," Ianto said.

"One day, we're gonna need him," Jack said.

Needle in hand, Owen said, "Right, everybody ready? Come on, Tommy." Nothing happened so Owen grabbed the paddles. He even said "clear" like all the doctors on TV. Tommy woke up and immediately started struggling. Owen yelled at Gwen to take the paddles and tried himself to calm Tommy.

"Get off me, leave me alone," the young soldier said as he violently struggled with the doctor.

Buffy jumped over the side and down into the pit and held him as still as she could while Tosh talked to him.

"Tommy, listen to me! Tommy Brockless!" He stopped struggling and looked at Tosh. "It's me, Toshiko."

"Toshiko…" he said as if it was all coming back to him.

"Remember?" she asked.

"Gets harder every year," Owen muttered and nodded his thanks to Buffy for helping.

"Do you know where you are?" Tosh asked Tommy.

He sat up. "Torchwood."

"That's right."

"Is it time again? Blimey."

"How are you feeling?"

He coughed a bit. "I could murder a cup of tea."

Everyone smiled, and then looked at Ianto. His smile dropped and he left to get everything ready. As Tosh helped Tommy up and out, Owen grabbed Buffy's hand and looked at her bandaged arm.

"He didn't damage this, do you think?"

"No, it's still fine."

"She must work out a bit," Gwen said aside to Jack, still impressed by Buffy's agility and strength holding down Tommy. Jack just smiled and gave that knowing laugh of his. They all then gathered in the conference room for breakfast.

"Don't expect the best china," Ianto said. "Visitors only."

"I'm starving," Tommy said. "Here, tuck in. There's enough to feed an army."

"We should do this every morning," Jack said. "Breakfast, I mean."

"No arguments from me," Buffy replied taking a testing sip of coffee.

"He's not going to poison you, Buffy," Jack whispered.

Gwen heard. "You don't think Ianto would poison you? No, he wouldn't do a thing like that."

"I just like to follow the Boy Scout motto—be prepared," Buffy replied flippantly. Gwen looked to Jack, but he just shook his head.

"Buffy, I don't mean to be rude…" Gwen began and Buffy knew where she was going.

"Fight with a few weevils," Buffy said before Gwen could ask.

"A few?" Jack asked.

"Three, not all at once."

At the other end of the table Tommy was grinning. "1968, they were in miniskirts. Thought all my Christmases had come at once. Shame they haven't made a comeback."

Gwen whispered to Jack. "I still don't get it. Why is he here?"

"Like I said—one day, we're gonna need him." Jack turned to Buffy. "UNIT's been calling. They want to know why you left and joined us. Call them back when you've finished."

"And tell them what?" she asked.

He just looked at her for a moment. "I think that's up to you."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When she called from her workstation, she wasn't too surprised that she wasn't put through to Colonel Gold. He had dealt with her often enough to know she was immovable when she had made up her mind. Instead she had to speak with his superior, General Painsburrow. The call was mostly to tell her that her actions, though quite unusual were forgivable, that they still wanted her at UNIT. He also kept warning her that they didn't like Torchwood, that they couldn't completely trust them, and that UNIT had told Harkness to let her go should she wish to return to UNIT. Buffy mostly listened—there was no point arguing. So she thanked him, politely said she'd keep it in mind, and then ended the conversation letting the General think he had gotten through to her.

As she looked around to see what was now happening, she saw Tommy helping Tosh put her coat on. It looked like they were going out on a date. 'So that's why she wore the dress,' Buffy thought. 'Good for her.'

"Thanks for holding the fort while I'm out," Tosh told Owen.

"No worries," he said. "Have fun. Be careful."

"Where are you off?" Gwen asked.

"A drink, film? Maybe a pizza," Tosh said.

Both Gwen and Jack said, "Aw, very nice."

"I'll be on the mobile if you need me," Tosh assured them.

"Have a lovely time," Gwen said.

Jack said, "Bye!"

As Tommy and Tosh left, Buffy's sensitive ears picked up some of Gwen and Jack's conversation.

"He's a frozen soldier from 1918."

"Nobody's perfect."

"Seems like today should be pretty quiet," Owen said to Buffy. "I don't anything bad's going to happen for you to fight after all."

"Did you have to say that?" she asked angrily. "Rift or Hellmouth, you've just jinxed us."

"No I haven't," he said defensively.

She just gave him the Buffy stare of "I'm going to be telling you 'I told you so.'"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Sure enough, Gwen called Jack to come to the hospital where the bad was going to go down. She said she had seen a ghost. Owen spotted a small rift spike, but they didn't think it was time yet to call Tosh in. Then the spikes turned into little mountain ranges as Gwen and Jack saw more ghosts. Jack decided to call Toshiko. They all met once again in the conference room for a debriefing.

"Demolishing the hospital is what triggers the time-shift," Jack said to everyone.

"So, don't demolish it," Owen suggested.

"Too late," Jack answered, "it's already started."

"What happens next?" Gwen asked.

"Two different times should never exist simultaneously," Jack continued. "You want to be in 1918, or now. Not both."

Tosh started thinking out loud. "So when 1918 becomes fully manifest…"

"It's really going to screw us up," Owen finished.

"But I've heard theories that time is more like a bowl of stuff," Buffy said, thinking of the Doctor's rambling explanation of time. "How bad _is_ this going to be?"

Jack picked up a piece of paper. "Okay… linear time." He crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it at her. "Screwed up time. Imagine your life as a straight line, from birth to death. Now, try drawing that line on the paper without straightening it out."

"It's impossible," Gwen said.

"That's why we've got to stop it," Jack said.

"Point made," Buffy conceded.

They left the room and Jack shouted to the upper levels. "Ianto! Is that box doing anything yet?"

"Still locked," was the answer.

"Okay," Jack said walking and giving orders. "We need to find out how fast the time-shift is happening. Get some idea when it's going to complete. Tosh, Owen, go to the hospital. We need readings. Cover the place with rift monitors. Buffy, help them out. Gwen, go through the files, see if there's anything we missed."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy had finished putting up the devices as Tosh had instructed, and was going to join her to see what else needed to be done. When she heard Owen talking she stopped just outside, out of sight.

"Just be careful."

"What do you mean?" Tosh asked.

"You're very close to Tommy."

"I've only known him for four days."

"Yeah. You've fallen for him, haven't you?"

"I can be myself with him. I don't have to pretend."

"No, I understand. I-I didn't think you had some weird fetish for defrosted men. I just, um… I don't want you to get hurt, that's all… if you have to say goodbye." Owen's concern could be interpreted two ways: one, as more of a brother looking out for his sister; two, as someone who really cared for Tosh, maybe even more than just as a brother. Considering that with the way Tosh looked at Owen at times, and how like Willow Tosh could be… Buffy was pretty sure that she just found Tosh's Xander.

Gwen contacted Owen over the comm and asked him to go check something out for her. Buffy walked in past Owen running out.

"Everything ok?" Buffy asked Tosh.

"Yeah," she answered.

"Listen, I couldn't help overhearing some of what Owen said, and can I say ditto? I've lost a few guys that I've cared about—they left me, actually—but I know how it feels. If you need someone… I've got violent movies and ice cream at my flat. You're always welcome to come by."

"Thank you."

A little while later the rift monitor started beeping. Then the lights flashed and an alarm sounded through the whole room. Tosh hurried out and Buffy followed. Not long after they were called back to the Hub and once again in the conference room.

Jack once again began the explanations. "In twelve hours, there'll be a brief moment when both times exist, before the time-shift completes, when Tommy can be here now, and in 1918. He needs to be in the hospital, ready to step from one time to another."

"So he'd be right inside the time-shift?" Gwen stated more than asked.

"And he can close the fracture that caused it," Jack nodded.

"And when the fracture's closed?" Tommy asked.

"1918 will be back where it belongs," Owen answered.

"So will I," Tommy said. "For good?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "You're the only one who can do this. We brought you from 1918 to now, and when you go back to 1918, your life will be like a thread stitching time back together again."

"A stitch in time." Tommy smiled ironically.

"How?" Tosh asked.

Jack picked up a round metal device. "This is a rift manipulator. It's basically a key. Once you're inside the time-shift, you can close the door behind you."

"And that's it? I'm gone?" Tommy looked at Tosh while the room was silent. Ianto walked in carrying a box.

"Tommy, stay with Ianto. Tosh, with me." Jack got up and left the room. Tosh followed, and then Gwen, Owen, and Buffy also left. It wasn't long before Tommy and Ianto also came into the workstation area of the Hub.

Tommy had a box and put it down by the couch where Buffy sat. "Where's Toshiko?"

"Still in with Jack," Gwen pointed.

"So… tomorrow morning. What time is it now?"

Gwen checked her watch, but Ianto had his quicker. "Ten to nine."

"Always with a bloody watch," Owen whispered to Buffy, sitting next to her.

"So what do we do till then?" Tommy asked. Everyone just looked at each other. Tommy scoffed at them. "You don't know, do you?"

"What would you like to do?" Gwen asked with a kind smile.

"The night before we went over the top, we used to play cards, write letters. Have a drink, if anyone had some." Tommy sat down on the couch next to Buffy and Owen.

"I always just moped or sulked," Buffy said with disappointment, quietly and to no one in particular.

"Yeah, well, we could do that," Owen said. "The cards and a drink—not the moping."

"Yeah," Ianto agreed and turned to get the stuff.

"But you're not coming with me," Tommy said and Ianto stopped. "I'm going on my own."

Everyone was once again quite.

"So we're going with the moping," Buffy said with a sigh.

Tosh walked to her station and Jack leaned against the door frame.

"We were just wondering what, um, Tommy should do tonight," Gwen told them.

"Something that's not moping," Buffy muttered so only Owen heard.

Jack looked like he might say something, but Tosh spoke first. "He can come home with me. He's not our prisoner; he doesn't have to stay here. Does he?"

She looked to Jack. "No. If that's what you both want." The two looked at each other. "Tomorrow morning, 6:30."

Everyone moved their own way and Jack stood watching them all.

It was times like these that Buffy wished she could turn her brain off. Instead it kept whirling around, connecting seemingly random things, and handing her conclusions she didn't want.

Tosh may like Owen, like Willow once liked Xander, but there didn't seem to be anything happening between them other than unsaid feelings. So dating other people while still keeping a bit of hope was likely the case. She did dress up—in an actual dress, no less—for the day with Tommy. They went out on a date. They were going to spend the night together. Tommy was, for all his years at Torchwood, a man from an age still holding on to some Victorian morals. Spending the night together had to mean something to them… that they meant something to each other. Tomorrow morning Tosh would have to watch Tommy leave into 1918 and never return. It struck Buffy as too similar to her having to send Angel into hell—without the guy going evil and then getting his soul back at the last minute. Tosh was going to have to be extremely strong to do it… and from the way she looked at Tommy, it was going to hurt like hell. At least this time, unlike Buffy, she had someone who could understand and sympathise.

"Can I give you a lift home?" Owen asked Buffy.

She snapped out of her thoughts. "Yeah, thanks."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Jack was going through papers when he heard Ianto come up behind him. "This time tomorrow, he'll be back in 1918."

"In his own time," Ianto said. "Would you go back to yours? If you could?"

"Why, would you miss me?"

"Yep." Ianto came closer.

Jack sighed. "I left home a long time ago. I don't really know where I really belong. Maybe that doesn't matter anymore."

"I… don't you get lonely?" Ianto sat on the edge of the desk.

"Going home wouldn't fix that. Being here, I've seen things I never dreamt I'd see. Loved people I never would have known if I'd just stayed where I was."

"Like your daughter," Ianto said. Jack wasn't surprised the Welshman knew. He had expected him to snoop around and find out anything he could about the "new girl." But he also sensed that Ianto now forgave him for suddenly bringing the blonde to the team.

"Yeah, but there are others I've loved differently. And I wouldn't change that for the world."

They shared a look, and that look swiftly fell into a kiss.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

In the morning, Jack decided that Ianto and Buffy should stay behind at the Hub to keep an eye on things while the rest went to the hospital. Buffy was grumbling when Ianto handed her a cup of coffee.

"I could have slept in, but _no_! I have to come in at six-stupid-thirty and _sit_ for a while. I'd like to kick him so he can't sit down." She looked at Ianto who was staring at her. "What?"

"Nothing," he said. "Who am I to interrupt the ramblings of a crazy woman talking to herself?"

Like always, she tested the coffee before fully drinking from it. "Well," she said, "I guess it was worth coming in if only for the coffee from the Coffee God."

"The title is actually King of Coffee," he said.

"So modest?" Buffy said while crossing her arms.

"The others should be back soon," he replied and quickly left. Despite the difference of speech patterns, some of her mannerisms were eerily similar to Jack's. When Buffy first arrived he had been unsettled by an amount of jealousy. Now that he knew she was Jack's daughter, he was unsettled by the fact that she looked Ianto's age. Knowing Jack Harkness was hundreds, or even thousands (who really knew?), of years old was one thing. Seeing the daily proof of it was another. Oddly enough, the vampire slayer thing didn't upset him in the slightest. This was Torchwood after all.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When the team came back, they rushed in to check the monitors, but the alarms started blaring.

"Whoa. What's happening?" Gwen asked.

"The time-shift hasn't closed," Buffy said as she turned from her computer. "It's only been getting more active."

"Toshiko, show me the city, now!" Jack ordered.

"It's spreading out from the hospital," she said.

"What the hell are they?" Gwen asked while looking at the screen with dots popping up all over the city area.

"Chunks of the past erupting into the present," Jack said.

"They're everywhere," Owen said from his station.

"What happened to that rift key?" Buffy asked.

"Tommy isn't using it," Tosh said.

"Why not?" Ianto asked from behind her.

"I don't know," she said angrily. "Because he's just gone back to ninety years ago, because he's shell-shocked?"

"One of us will have to go back," Jack said to Owen.

"Jack, wait!" Owen protested, stopping the Captain as he moved to leave. "You'll get stuck in 1918. I've got an idea." He ran down to the autopsy area and starting moving and pulling out equipment. "The time-shifts are forcing the rift open. If we're quick, we can use it to our advantage. A tiny amount should do. We know Tommy's exact location in time. If we send an image of you through to him…"

"I can go into Tommy's mind," Jack finished.

"As a psychic projection," Owen agreed. "Yes, if we're lucky."

"And Tommy will be able to see you," Gwen added.

"I can make him use the key," Jack said. Jack and Owen got ready for the injection, but Tosh spoke.

"Let me do it." Everyone below looked up at her. Buffy, standing next to her, put a hand on Toshiko's. "He trusts me."

Jack stopped, and looked around while thinking. He nodded. "Okay."

Only moments later Tosh was in the chair all hooked up to the head monitor. "How long have I got?" she asked Owen.

"Minutes," he replied.

"You've got one shot, Tosh," Jack told her. "That's all."

"All right?" Owen asked. She nodded, and he gave her the injection.

As supportive as Buffy wanted to be, she couldn't watch. Someone had to keep an eye on the time-shift anyways. But even as she watched the dots, over and over her mind played one of the worst moments in her life.

_She held her sword ready for the kill when his eyes glowed. His whole demeanour changed, and Buffy could feel the power that had just come through him, but she didn't want to accept what it meant. Not now._

"_Buffy?" Angel sobbed. "What's going on? Where are we? I-I don't remember."_

_Though she knew the curse had once again given him his soul, she couldn't quite believe it. Not now. "Angel?"_

"_You're hurt." They both looked at the wound and then he hugged her tight. "Oh, Buffy… God. I… I feel like I haven't seen you in months." She leaned more into the embrace as he continued to talk. "Oh, my God, everything's so muddled. I… Oh… Oh, Buffy…"_

_Buffy cried and hugged him just as tight, but Acathla was waking up. She let him go, trying to prepare herself for what she knew she had to do._

"_What's happening?" Angel asked with confusion._

_She whispered and reassured him—the hardest lie to tell. "Shh. Don't worry about it."_

_They kissed, but she could feel the portal growing._

"_I love you," she whispered. And he whispered it back, as if driving the sword through her heart. She touched his lips one last time. "Close your eyes."_

_Pain, anguish, confusion, love and betrayal—they were all written on his face as she stepped back and watched the man she loved be pulled into hell._

Buffy pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a note for Tosh. "Ice cream and making fun of vampire movies—my flat. Buffy." She left the note on Tosh's workstation, grabbed her things, and left.


	16. Working Relationships

As soon as Buffy got to her flat, without thinking, she picked up her mobile and dialled.

"Buffy?"

As soon as she heard his voice what she was doing hit her. "Yeah, um… sorry, Spike. I don't know what I was thinking. I… I'm sorry. I'll let you get back to doing what it was you were doing."

"Wasn't doin' much of anything. I'm a bit surprised that you called, happy but… Do you need to talk?"

"I don't know."

"Buffy, if this Torchwood keeps upsettin' you, get the hell out of there. You've got friends here that miss you." Unsaid was the repetition that _he_ missed her.

"No, it's not that. It was better—no aliens, just cracks in time. It's just… it brought up old memories."

"And I'm to take it that these memories aren't all puppies and candyfloss," he stated.

"Yeah."

"If you don't wanna talk about it…"

"No, it's just… A friend was falling in love with this guy, but the guy was the only one who could stop the cracks in time by going through to 1918 and sealing it all behind him. And she had to be the one to convince him to do it. Sound familiar?"

There was a long pause. She heard him take a deep, and unnecessary, breath. "Angel. Right. Wanker. I don't know what to say, Slayer."

"That keeps happening," Buffy said and decided to lighten the mood. "I think it means your personality is improving."

"That right?"

"Or the world is ending."

"Not the right time of year," they both said together.

"That was creepy," Buffy said. She heard a knock at the door.

"Sounds like you gotta go," Spike said. "Later, Slayer."

She hung up and opened the front door. Tosh stood there. "Ice cream and movies?" she asked.

"I've got plenty," Buffy said and motioned Tosh to enter.

"Were you talking to someone?" Tosh asked while indicating the phone still in Buffy's hand.

"No, yes, someone."

"A boyfriend?"

"God no. Just a friend. That's a guy. Kind of."

"Oh."

"No, no, not like that. He's a vampire."

"You're friends with a vampire?" Tosh sounded surprised and a bit alarmed.

"Kind of. It's complicated. He's… complicated." Buffy walked into the kitchen area while Tosh looked around the flat. It was only the early afternoon, so they'd have time for a few movies and girl talk. Tosh looked like she needed it; she had a sad distance in her eyes that Buffy knew well. "Listen, Tosh, it may seem crazy, but I do know what you're going through."

"How could you?" she asked, but not unkindly. Buffy didn't think there was an unkind bone in the Asian woman's body.

"Because I had to…" She wondered just how much she was going to tell. The more time as a slayer the less and less she was share girl.

"You had to what?"

Oh what the hell. "I had to send my boyfriend to hell."

"What do you mean…"

"Fire, brimstone, endless torment. That hell. It's a long story with so much baggage; all you need to know is that in order to save the world I sent my boyfriend to hell."

"How did you deal with that?"

"Not well, but I was only seventeen at the time. It took me a while to realise I just needed to get back to my job and help people rather than mope about it. Anyway, how about those movies?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

A few days of quiet later, Buffy came in late. After she dropped her bag by her station Ianto handed her a cup of coffee.

"Where have you been?" Jack demanded.

"UNIT called about a previous case," she explained. "It took a while to clear things up. Something happen?"

"Suspicious meat in one of Gwen's fiancé's moving trucks." They both approached Owen's pit. Sure enough, there was a lump of bloody meat on the autopsy table. Owen wore a heavy apron and gloves.

"There is evidence of a vertebral column, but its genetic makeup isn't compatible with any known animal," he said.

"Any idea what it is?" Jack asked.

"Have to scan it. But whoever's farming this meat knows it's dodgy." Owen held up a label. "You see this? Official vet stamp, 'Fit for human consumption.' It's fake. It's good, but it's fake."

Jack walked over to the other workstations. "Tosh, get on to the haulage firm. Find out where that meat is from and where it's heading."

Buffy stayed with Owen and frowned as she drank her coffee. "How would they find out in the first place if it was okay to eat? I've never exactly looked at an alien and thought, 'Oh, that looks like it'd be tasty on my dinner plate.'"

"I think we can file that under 'questions we never want the answers to,'" he replied. "How can you drink that with this smell?"

She took another sip of coffee. "Too much time around hygiene-deficient vamps. It's like they die and lose all concept of B.O."

"If I die, don't let me come back as a vampire."

"Right, you die and I'll decapitate you just to be sure."

"Friendship at its finest," he muttered sarcastically. "So you've heard that Gwen's fiancé is involved in this one?"

"Yeah," she said. It seemed she couldn't come in to work at Torchwood without something from the Initiative being triggered in her memory. "Reminds me of this ex-boyfriend of mine and when I found out he was involved with majorly evil special-ops."

Owen shook his head. "You are so much like your father."

"What do you mean?"

"He's always talking about ex-boyfriends."

Buffy diverted the subject. "Your screen's blinking over there."

"Yeah, hang on." He looked at the screen and then at the meat again. "Jack!"

"Yeah!" Jack shouted back and they all came over to the autopsy area.

"Scan shows it's definitely alien meat."

Jack sighed heavily. "Where the hell would they get it from?"

"If it's going into the processing plant," said Tosh, "that means it's going into pies, burgers, pasties—everything."

Gwen made a noise of disgust. "That means people have been eating it for months."

Owen pointed to the screen. "Well, the DNA traces are stable. There are some signs of animal sedative, but no detectable diseases or residues. My guess is it's good to eat."

"Would you eat it?" Gwen asked.

Ianto joined them. "Pizza's arrived—presumed it would be a late one."

Owen sighed. "What'd you get me?"

"Usual—meat feast."

"Lovely," Owen muttered as he stared at the slab of meat on the table.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Plans were discussed over the pizza. Owen sat between Buffy and Tosh picking the meat off the pizza.

Ianto paced while eating. "I've narrowed it down to three potential areas; only one warehouse is unoccupied. It's just outside Merthyr."

"Makes sense," Owen said. "Who knows what goes on there?"

Jack spoke with his mouth full. "We've got to shut the operation down, neutralize whoever is doing this, and identify the alien meat." Though Gwen started to check her phone, Jack continued. "Tosh, you can coordinate."

Gwen spoke up. "I have to slip home and check on Rhys first."

"Good idea," Jack agreed. "Find out how much he knows."

"That's not what I meant," she said and left.

"Let me guess," Buffy said with obvious fake cheeriness, "I get to sit here and help Tosh!"

"You wouldn't if you would carry a gun," Jack said.

"Not this again," Owen muttered and was ignored.

"Jack, do you not get that I'm a _slayer_. Pretty much a human weapon here. I don't need a gun."

Jack just threw up his hands. Buffy's phone then went off.

"Summers," she answered. "Colonel Gold, I didn't expect to hear from you… No, I don't think so… Did you try talking to him? … What do you mean? … Sir, I don't know what more you expect from me… All right, I'll see what I can do from here."

Jack, having explained the plan to the others while she was on the phone, now stared at Buffy. "UNIT?"

"That thing from this morning is still of the bad. They need me for the solvage, I guess. Is there somewhere I can video conference with them and get this all cleared up?"

"I'm not sure that was entirely English, but go use the conference room." She started to leave, but he called out to her. "I hope this won't be a habit. You work for UNIT or Torchwood, not both. You have to choose, Buffy."

They shared a long look, both trying to read the other and getting nothing. "I'll let you know by the end of the day."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When Buffy finally finished things with UNIT, she found the central hub area tense and quiet. Ianto had brought out the beer instead of the coffee, so Buffy knew something was up. Jack was on the phone—presumably with Gwen since she was the only one absent from the team.

"She's bringing him in," Jack announced.

Buffy looked to someone for an explanation, but got nothing. Eventually Ianto spoke up.

"Well, this is unprecedented: a fiancé finding out."

"Mainly because we're all sad and single," said Tosh.

"Speak for yourself," Owen said. "I am better off without that kind of hassle."

"Maybe the answer is to go out with someone who knows what you do," Tosh said, ever hopeful.

"Look around you, Tosh," Owen replied, "only we know what we do."

"There's UNIT," Buffy said, still the organisation's poster child. "Lots of hot guys there that know about aliens. Then again, not in Cardiff. London, mostly. And long distance works less than hiding what you do. Trust me."

"Is that why you aren't with that friend of yours?" Tosh asked her. "Is it the distance? Or wait… the vampire thing?"

"What?" Buffy squeaked and drew everyone's attention. "No! God no! I would never… and that one time totally didn't count because of the spell. No… just no."

"Am I missing something?" Owen asked, and even Ianto looked curious.

"No! Nothing. There is absolutely nothing here," Buffy said. Fortunately she was spared any further interrogation by the simultaneous arrival of Gwen and Rhys via the lift and a text from UNIT. Jack was coming down while Buffy went up to the greenhouse. She rolled her eyes and held up her phone; he frowned but didn't say anything. Instead he watched Rhys' amazement at seeing the dinosaur. Even though she was out of sight and texting UNIT back, she made sure to listen and keep an eye on everyone else.

"That looked so real," Rhys laughed.

"It was real," Gwen said.

"They're extinct, Gwen."

"In your timeline, yes," Jack said and shook Rhys' hand. "Captain Jack Harkness. Thanks for dropping in, Rhys."

Gwen introduced them. "This is the rest of the team: Owen and Toshiko, Ianto." She looked around

"Pleased to meet you," Rhys nodded politely.

"Welcome to our headquarters."

"They're bigger than mine," Rhys joked. "So, Gwen tells me you catch aliens."

"That's right," Jack said.

Owen gave the rehearsed answer. "There's a rift through space and time that runs through Cardiff, Rhys. And stuff slips through it from other timelines, and planets and it's our job to monitor it."

Rhys eyed Owen and slowly stepped off the lift block. "You sure they're not some weird kind of cult?"

"You saw that alien in the warehouse." Gwen nudged Rhys. "Go on."

"What did you see?" Jack asked.

"Uh, it was like this huge, shapeless beast filling the space, like a mound of flesh."

Buffy had to draw her full attention back to her phone. The problem with UNIT was finally drawing to a definite close and she wanted it to get there quickly. She registered in the background that the creature was still alive and growing. Her attention was fully back to Torchwood when Ianto said the oddest thing.

"We could release a single."

Oh, right. There was some eighties song about feeding the world and Christmas.

Jack stopped Ianto's joke from going anywhere. "We're talking about dodgy pies and Merthyr, okay? And the fact that they're cutting it up alive—" he turned to Rhys, "—which we could've put a stop to already, if it wasn't for you."

"I thought my fiancée was in danger," Rhys argued.

"Well, Mr. Caveman, she wasn't. She can handle herself."

"Jack," Gwen said with a motion for him to stop. He didn't, so Buffy put all her attention on Torchwood. This was getting intense.

"All you did tonight was mess things up. Now, we have to think of a way to get back in. And thanks to you, they'll have tightened security!"

Jack turned, but Rhys put in his side. "Well, if you stopped and asked me exactly what I saw in there, instead of showing off round the place—"

"Do I show off?" Jack asked Ianto.

"Just a bit," Ianto answered with a nod.

"—you'd know that I got out by telling them I wanted a job as a delivery boy. So rather than cock things up, I found you a way to get in!" Rhys got right up in Jack's face. "But if you can't handle that, big boy, then you can stuff it!"

Jack waited a beat and looked at Gwen. "This is quite homoerotic."

"No, no, no, no, Jack," Gwen protested. "He is not getting us in."

"Team meeting." Jack pointed at Gwen and then to Rhys. "You too!"

They all followed Jack to the conference room. Buffy finished with UNIT, adding that if they bothered her again in the next twenty-four hours they would regret ever hiring her. She arrived in the conference room just as Ianto was laying out maps of the warehouse on the table.

"Hey," she greeted Jack and stood next to him while everyone was sitting down.

"Rhys, meet the last member of the team," Jack said. "Miss Buffy Summers."

Rhys' eyes went wide. "THE Buffy Summers?"

* * *

_And with that cliffhanger... I'm once again working on this story. Hopefully I can keep it up. _


	17. Jeepers

Rhys' eyes went wide. "THE Buffy Summers?"

"You've heard of me?" Buffy asked, a smile forming as her ego got a bit of a boost.

"My cousin's a Watcher. Complains about you all the time. Makes me glad I didn't go into that line of work."

"Wait, how… what are you…" Gwen was in too much shock to finish a question.

"Why didn't you tell me you worked with the most famous Vampire Slayer in five centuries?" Rhys asked. He looked around at all the confused and shocked faces. "Didn't you all know?"

"Slayer, yes; famous, not really," Buffy said. "Am I really that famous?"

"Yeah," Rhys said.

"Wait, wait," Gwen said. "Vampire slayer? What does that mean? Jack?"

Everyone looked uncomfortable. Jack sighed and sat up in his chair to explain. "Not only are there aliens, there are a whole lot of demons indigenous to our world—including vampires."

"I'm the sort of superhero that fights them to protect humanity," Buffy said.

"In every generation there is a Chosen One," Rhys said. "She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."

"You're really close with that Watcher cousin, aren't you?" Buffy said with a frown.

"Enough to know you aren't really the _One_ anymore," he replied.

"And you _all_ knew about this already?" Gwen asked angrily. "No one bothered to tell me about this? Jack?" She looked to him for an answer.

"Everyone just figured it out on their own." He shrugged.

"And _you_!" She turned on Rhys. "You give me shit about catching aliens, but you've known all this time about… did you really say vampires?"

They started arguing but Jack cut them off with a large whistle. "Hey! We need to get back to the problem at hand. And you," he pointed to Buffy, "stop distracting us with your celebrity. It would have been nice to know earlier."

She wasn't given the chance to protest as Jack took the meeting in hand. He asked Rhys to explain the layout of the warehouse.

Rhys pointed on the map. "That's where the thing is, that's the sedatives room, that's where they hang and pack all the meat."

"That's good to know," Owen said.

Gwen was pacing. "Yes, that's good to know, but he is not driving us in."

"They're expecting me," Rhys argued. "You lot can hide in the back of the van."

"What is this, _Scooby-Doo_?" Gwen shouted.

"My life—usually," Buffy muttered.

"I can believe that," Ianto muttered back.

Gwen and Rhys were shouting over them. "Absolutely no way is he getting involved."

"Oh, where was I when you decided to get involved? Did you give me a second thought?"

"Oh, joy, a domestic," Owen muttered.

"Rhys is right," Jack said. "He's our best way in—stun guns only."

"We've handled bigger than this," Owen said. "Why don't we just storm in, guns in the air and arrest them?"

"Those men aren't organized criminals," Jack replied. "If we go in, guns blazing, they'll kill the evidence and run."

"I wasn't suggesting blazing, just waving."

"The last thing we need is a bloodbath." Jack stood up.

"Point taken," Owen conceded.

"I know that," Gwen said.

"Once Rhys has loaded up, he can clear." Jack turned to Gwen. "You don't have to come. You can stand down."

"It might be better," Tosh said.

Jack pointed to Rhys while looking Gwen right in the eye. "You love him. Makes you vulnerable."

"He's not going in there without me," Gwen insisted.

"That's your decision."

"Yes, it is," she mumbled.

"You both have to live by it."

There was a quiet pause in the room.

"If it's just stun guns, can I come?" Buffy asked.

"Fine," Jack said.

"Oh, come on!" Rhys said. "A slayer there, you and me, a team."

"Dammit, Rhys!" Gwen shouted. "This is for real. Do you understand that? This is for real. And if you mess up, _I_ will kill you!"

Rhys sat down and Toshiko stood to get things back on topic. "So, after we've stun-gunned the workers, we put the creature out of its misery."

"No," Jack said with a shake of his head. He looked at Buffy. "We're going to save it. Stabilize it, wait for the rift to open, and phoom, send it back."

There was surprise around the table.

"Guess who'll have to look after it in the meantime," Ianto said to his coffee mug.

"Tell me," said Tosh, "exactly how are we going to use it to arm ourselves against the future?"

"We could always hide behind it," Owen suggested sarcastically.

"Why shouldn't we save it?" Jack asked. "Because it's an alien? It needs our protection."

"You didn't hear its cry," said Rhys. "Heartbreaking."

"Listen to Ahab."

"Jack, it's growing," Owen said. Neither he nor Ianto seemed thrilled at the idea of saving the alien.

"Well, we'll find a way to stop it mutating," Jack said using his this-is-final voice. "We are doing this! That's an order!"

The men nodded.

"I'll stock up on plankton," Ianto said as he stood and left. He was followed closely by Tosh and Owen.

"So you do have a heart," Gwen said softly.

Rhys looked at them over his mug.

"We see enough death," Jack said as he looked at Rhys and Buffy beside him. He left and the others slowly followed.

"Yay!" Buffy said with a smile. "I get to go on the mission!"

"You haven't before?" Rhys asked.

"Long story," Buffy said dismissively.

"She won't use a gun," Gwen said.

"Okay, not that long a story."

"So how do you know about Buffy again?" Gwen asked.

"Um, my cousin, Thom, talks about her all the time."

"Why?" Gwen asked.

"What's not to talk about?" Buffy said.

"She's _the _Slayer. She's the only one to quit the counsel."

"Counsel?" Gwen asked.

"Watchers Counsel," Buffy explained. "As the name implies, they watch slayers, train them, and record everything."

"Didn't you also die?" Rhys asked loudly. They were now in the central area; Tosh was speaking to Jack at her station, but they both looked at the trio to hear Buffy's answer. There was an odd look on Jack's face.

"Only for like a minute," Buffy said awkwardly. "Stupid prophesy. The Master mojo-ed me with his hypno-voice and left me face down in a puddle. CPR isn't all that unheard of."

"The Master?" Gwen asked. She looked more confused the more Buffy spoke.

"Really ugly, old vampire," Buffy said. She shuddered at the memory. "I can never look at fruit punch the same."

Jack motioned for Buffy to meet him in his office, but as she left Gwen and Rhys, she heard Gwen say, "Sometimes I don't understand half of what she says."

"Is the thing with UNIT done?" Jack asked as he sat in his chair.

"Yeah, for now hopefully."

"They do know you work for Torchwood and not them, right?"

"If not, they will."

He nodded, satisfied with the answer. "We have a lot to talk about. Those reports on you from UNIT left out quite a bit."

"Yeah, well," she said. "After this we'll definitely have some quality father-daughter bonding time."

"Agreed. So what did UNIT need you for today?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy kept Jack entertained with the morning UNIT debacle until they all were able to call it a night. The next morning Rhys and Jack squared away the van at Rhys' office, and the team met them at the loading dock. Owen helped in Tosh and would have helped Buffy, but she jumped in before he had the chance. Ianto, and then Gwen and Jack followed shortly. Rhys closed up the van and soon they were moving. Stun guns and a torch were passed around. Buffy started to hum the theme from Scooby-Doo. Tosh gave a brief giggle, Owen snickered, Ianto and Gwen frowned, and Jack shushed her, but he had a slight smile on his face.

He gave out the assignments: Jack with Gwen and Tosh, and Buffy with Owen and Ianto.

Buffy, Owen, and Ianto entered the building and soon passed through the hanging meat in the packing room. They spread out. Buffy was nearing Owen when he stunned a worker in a quick move that had her impressed. It wasn't too bad for a man with no superpowers.

Owen then pulled out the gun from the back of the man's trousers. He hits his comm, "Everyone, they're armed."

"See, that's why I don't like guns," Buffy said. She left Owen and started scouting on her own.

Gwen came over the comm, but Buffy tuned it out. She was listening for any of the workers. She walked around and then saw one locking the door. In a flash he was unconscious on the floor… and she didn't even have to use the stun gun. She then swiftly returned to Owen.

"They've got everyone," he said as he was pulling out chemicals and mixing things together.

"Right," Buffy said. "Me to the rescue."

She got to the area with the creature just as Gwen was making the "you don't have to do this" speech. She could have told her that it never worked, but she hopefully already knew that. It was good form to do it anyway.

The man named Dale had his gun out, but she wasn't able to get to him before it went off. But only a second later she knocked it clean out of hand. A punch to the eye, a kick in the groin, and another blow to the head later and he was out cold.

She only gave Ianto a glance to see that he was all right and out of his bonds before she chased after the man watching everything from a second level area. The man was frozen with shock when she made the leap and landed in front of him. Tired of using her fists at a human appropriate level, Buffy pulled out the stun gun and shocked the man till he slumped to the ground.

Buffy looked out at the lower floor. Rhys was shot, but Owen was running towards him. Ianto and Tosh were rounding up the unconscious for detainment. Jack was surveying everything while occasionally putting a hand on the creature's side. Looking at how big it really was, Buffy wondered what they would ever do with the thing.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When Buffy rejoined everyone Ianto was pulling out little white pills and giving them to the members of the meat operation.

"Nice jumping," Owen said as he was helping a barely conscious Rhys walk out of the building. "I've seen it, so I think I believe it now."

"Jeepers," Buffy said as she looked at the blood soaked cloth temporarily covering Rhys' wound. He only gave an un-lucid smile, and Gwen frowned as she hovered near her fiancé.

Jack came and stood next to Buffy. "And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for us meddling kids."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "You, a kid?"

"At heart."

"Right. What's Ianto giving the prisoners?"

"Retcon, our amnesia pill."

"Amnesia… no, no, please don't tell me you use memory altering methods."

"Rules and regulations," he answered firmly. He could see the argument coming and cut it off. "They can't remember any of this."

Buffy took a deep breath. "Fine," she said in a way that indicated it was anything but.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Everyone gathered around to watch Owen sew up Rhys. Buffy didn't join them. There didn't seem much point in crowding a wounded man. He'd be fine, and this was hardly the last time they'd all see him.

Buffy watched Gwen follow Jack into his office. Not long after she left again, and she and Rhys left the Hub. As everyone came up to their computer stations Buffy said, "I like him."

"Yeah," Owen said. "Shame, though."

Buffy thought it was an odd thing to say, but she didn't press it. Instead she asked, "What's going to happen to the great, big space whale?"

"I think I stabilised the protein chains, so it won't get any bigger. We should be able to push it through the rift tomorrow if Tosh's calculations are correct."

That seemed a satisfying conclusion. She finished typing a very firmly written letter to UNIT, telling them to mind their own business because she was no longer one of their employees. Some minutes later Gwen returned alone through the cog door.

"I'm not doing it. I won't drug him."

Buffy put the pieces together quickly. Gwen was supposed to retcon Rhys?

"You have to," Tosh said.

"We can't allow him to remember," added Owen.

"Why the hell not?" Buffy asked.

"It's the rules," Ianto replied.

"But none of you have any partners outside of this," Gwen countered.

"But we understand how you feel," Jack said. Buffy scoffed.

Gwen put in her argument. "No, you don't. No, you don't, Jack. You all think it's cold and lonely out there, but it isn't for me, because I have him. He matters, and I've lied to him for long enough. What he did today was so brave. Braver than any of us, because we signed up for this, but he didn't—he did it because he loves me! And I won't take that away from him! I won't! And if that means I have to quit, or you retcon me or whatever, then fine, fine."

Jack tossed a water bottle at Ianto and approached Gwen. "You really think you could go back to your old life before Torchwood?"

"I wouldn't know anything different."

"He already knows about me, Jack," Buffy said. "What are aliens if he already knows about demons? Don't take his memory from him."

Jack looked at her and then back at Gwen. "Give Rhys my love and I will see you tomorrow." She left and Jack took the water bottle back from Ianto and went to his office. Along the way he shouted, "Buffy! My office, now."

He sat down and pointed to the chair across from his desk for her to sit in. "I want you to explain here and now why you have such a problem with guns and retcon."

"Because I've been shot and had my memory tampered with," she said. With his tone she didn't want to dance around the point with long explanations.

"That's happened to most of us," he said.

"So that makes it right?"

"No, but it's what we do." He sighed. "I saw how you took those men out. I underestimated you before. I need you on my team, but I need you armed and willing to follow the rules. Can you do that?"

She pressed her lips together tightly. "Fine, but I'm not reaching for the gun unless I absolutely have to; I'll do things my way first."

"Fine," he answered. "You can carry a knife _and_ a gun. Now, you hungry? I've worked up quite an appetite arguing with you, so why don't we go get something to eat and you can tell me about being a slayer."

"Sure, but that's a big subject. Where do you want me to start?"

"What about that Master and dying?"

"Ah, the beginning."

Though she could be dismissive about the whole thing, Jack frowned.


	18. Shattered

"So this new big bad crashes Parent Night, and I'm already way stressed with Snyder on the war path." Buffy had spent over two hours talking to her father about Sunnydale. He actually had questions about some odd things he had read about. It was mostly the lighter stuff from that first year in Sunnydale: the witchcraft sabotaged cheerleading tryouts, Xander's hyena possession, the preying mantis substitute, and then Parent Night from the second year. Jack laughed at her being interested in cheerleading and at Xander's various predicaments. She was now explaining Parent Night, but without mentioning Spike by name. She didn't know why she didn't want him to know that it was Spike. He didn't know about Spike at all. That might have been the reason; _she_ still had trouble believing that the vampire from that night was the same she confided in over the phone.

Buffy continued to explain getting her mom and other parents to the safety of a classroom until they could get out through the library. Jack seemed most interested in how she climbed through the ceiling to take out the vampires one by one. Then she talked about her showdown with the gang leader. "So I'm on the ground thinking it might all be over when Mom comes up behind him and swings this axe at his head."

"I knew Joyce was one hell of a woman," Jack said with a laugh. "What happened with the vampire leader after that?"

"He stayed a thorn in my side until I dropped an organ on him and put him in a wheel chair for several months."

"You certainly are creative," he said. "Why didn't you kill him?"

"I don't know," she said, not entirely sure of the answer. "I didn't really get the chance. He wasn't around so he wasn't a priority. Plus there was the big gang of followers and his psycho hoe-bag of a girlfriend."

"Now what about the Master? Who was he?"

"He was my worst nightmare, at the time," she said. "He was trapped beneath Sunnydale by some mystic barrier, and he kept trying to break free. There was this big prophesy about him and the Anointed One. Turned out the Anointed One was a kid that led me to the Master. The rest of the prophesy was how I would face the Master and die. I flipped over that, but I had to stop him. When I got to his lair there wasn't even a fight. He came up behind me and I couldn't move. He briefly sunk in his teeth and then let me fall into a pool of water. He could then leave and open the Hellmouth. Xander came soon after that and brought me back with CPR. I faced the Master again and killed him."

"How old were you?" Jack asked quietly.

"Sixteen."

"God," Jack said and shook his head. "I'm so sorry."

"You know, I think you're the first person to truly apologise for my calling. The Watchers just say it's your duty to have a life expectancy of six months to two years. Have fun!"

"How did you do it? How did you survive for so long?"

"I had my friends and family. Eventually Mom found out, and Giles—for all my complaints about the Watcher's Counsel, he was different—he became a kind of father to me during those years."

"Do you still stay in contact?" There was no jealousy of another man in his place. She had needed someone there and he was glad that she had that.

"No, not really." For the first time in all her narrative there was sadness in her voice. "They didn't trust UNIT, and they'd trust Torchwood even less. And I'm not sure I trust them anymore either. Plus, the distance puts a major halt on any real contact. They're all still in Sunnydale… well, Giles is in London, but we haven't spoken in forever."

"You should see him," Jack said. "It's important, a life outside Torchwood. You have that, so hold on to it. Take a few days and go see him. I was thinking about giving everyone a long weekend off anyways."

Buffy thought about it. Giles was probably the one she least wanted to let go; he knew what a slayer was. She had long since broken all ties with Willow, Xander couldn't forgive her for that whole incident, Dawn was building a new family without her, but Giles might understand.

"All right," she said. "I'll go see Giles for a few days."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

It took two weeks before the promised long weekend came, but at last Buffy was able to travel out to London. The new Watcher's Counsel Headquarters was located on a large estate near the edge of Highgate. When Buffy arrived she was immediately shown up to Giles' office.

"Hey Giles," Buffy greeted him.

"Buffy, it's good to see you here," he said. "Would you like a tour of our training school? I think you'd be impressed with the program we've come up with for all of the girls."

"Not really that sort of slayer anymore," she answered.

"Yes," he said and started polishing his glasses. "You've joined Torchwood."

"What's with the big disapproval?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your glasses," Buffy pointed to them. "You do that when you don't approve or don't want to know something. You already know, so…"

"I… um…" He was flustered enough putting back on his glasses that he accidentally knocked a picture from his desk. Buffy picked it up. The glass had cracked but was still all in place. The photo was of her, Willow and Xander. Giles watched as she looked at the picture. "You do know what you've gotten yourself into, don't you?"

"If you mean do I know about Torchwood One at Canary Wharf, then yes, I know. This group is different. They aren't perfect, but I trust them."

"And you don't trust us," Giles filled in what she didn't say.

"I trust you, Giles, but I don't think I could with the rest of them."

"Willow has asked me to intercede on her behalf."

"You told her I was coming?" Buffy started to get very angry, but Giles quickly reassured her.

"No, but I am closest to you now by way of geography. You could try to forgive her. She was your best friend. And since she came out of the coma last year…"

"Best friends don't use magic to kidnap and control their friends. I'm not sorry and I won't forgive her. What's past is past and gone." She put the picture back on his desk. Buffy decided she owed Giles the truth. "I joined Torchwood because its leader is my father."

"But Hank Summers…"

"Wasn't my biological father. I found out that it's really Captain Jack Harkness."

"Have you told Dawn? Or him about Dawn?"

"I asked Spike to tell her, and not yet. It's not a conversation I want to have with him just yet."

"And how do you like your father?" Giles asked.

"He's… something." Buffy couldn't help laughing; Jack wasn't what she expected by any stretch of the imagination. But so far that was just fine.

"If I remember what I've heard about Captain Harkness that seems the general consensus. Is he really such a character?"

"And then some."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy knew it was late when she finally got back to Cardiff; it was almost morning. But she went to Torchwood first to see if anything was happening—just in case. When she entered the Hub it was dark with only an ambient blue light by which to see. She looked around and saw Ianto on the couch. He was flipping through a book with no small amount of desperation.

"Ianto?" she said. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"Do you know a man named Adam?" he asked.

Once again she was in Torchwood and reminded of the Initiative. This was getting out of hand. "Can you be more specific?"

"Is there a man here at Torchwood named Adam?"

"Not since I've joined. Why? Who is he?"

"He's been here, all this time, but I there isn't a single mention of him in my diary. Everyone else is there, even you, but not him. And he's been here so long."

So something bad was definitely mobile in an upward direction. Buffy then heard a small crash from the autopsy area.

"Is anyone else here, Ianto?" she asked.

"No, just us."

"Wait here. We'll get to the bottom of whatever this is, whoever this Adam is." She slowly walked towards the pit and looked over the railing. Sitting on the table and nonchalantly swinging his legs was a man she'd never seen before. "Adam, I presume?"

"And you must be Buffy." He smiled.

Still moving carefully and deliberately, she walked down the stairs. "What have you done to Ianto?"

"Not just Ianto. Everyone." Still there was no fear in his voice, only joyful boasting.

"What have you done?" she repeated more forcefully.

He hopped down from the table. "Nothing to harm any of them. If you would just let me explain."

In less than the blink of an eye he was next to her and had a hand on her shoulder. She heard him say the word "remember" and then in the next instant images flashed in front of her eyes.

There was a bright light, her mother making breakfast with Dawn, Willow and Xander laughing in the library, Giles in padding for training, stabbing Angel, stabbing Faith, fighting Spike, jumping from the platform, an even brighter light, the Tardis with the Doctor, an orange planet with a domed city, the open fob watch glowing. More images and words and numbers flew through her brain, and then recent memories at Torchwood. Finally it stopped. It took maybe a second or two but it felt so much longer.

"Why didn't it work?" Adam was saying angrily. "Why can't I touch you?"

Before she could react she heard a gun go off and felt a punch in her chest. Her last thought, 'Not again.'

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"What have you done?" Ianto said as he rushed down to Buffy's side. Blood was everywhere. Adam had shot her in the chest, and then again in the head and stomach. Though there was no hope, Ianto checked for some sign of life. She was dead.

"What have _I_ done?" said Adam. He leaned down to Ianto and put a hand on his shoulder while whispering in his ear. "Don't you mean what have _you_ done?"

The image of the gun in Ianto's hand as it fired at Buffy filled Ianto's mind.

"No."

"And she's not the first. Remember this. I know you didn't mean to kill her. You just couldn't stop yourself."

Ianto saw himself choking a struggling woman on a rain covered street. Ianto struggled himself for breath while remembering all of the violence against her.

"I didn't do that," he said as he slipped to the ground.

"Oh, yes, you did, and she wasn't the first."

It was still raining, but in a different alley. A girl was running, but he cornered her. She begged him not to hurt her as he stalked ever closer.

"Good old Ianto, loyal Ianto." He could still hear Adam's voice. He saw another street and another girl. "Roaming the streets at night for bait."

Ianto struggled with the memories. He clung to the one thing that held any hope. "My… diary!"

"All human record is a lie," Adam said as they were suddenly walking down an alley in Ianto's mind. Adam threw the diary aside. "You twist it into what you want to believe. But we know the rot in your heart. You crave flesh."

Ianto tried to stay in the present, but Adam's voice kept drawing him back into dark memories that just couldn't be his. "No. Please."

"Remember it." The memory of even more women falling, dying at his hand filled his head. He once again felt the rush and power while draining away their lives. Ianto screamed in agony, but he just saw more and more as he heard Adam's voice. "Remember it. Remember it! Remember it! I helped you dump the bodies. It's me you call."

Ianto again saw Buffy standing there. He held the gun. He shot her through the chest. He put several more rounds into her head and gut. He killed her.

"And I'll take care of her too," Adam said. He kissed Ianto and held him as over and over Ianto remembered killing all those women. "You know, I forgot what a rush it is, feeding in the bad stuff."

Ianto didn't understand that last comment, but he didn't notice. Instead he was lost in his head. He looked back and forth, sometimes in the Hub, sometimes in the rain covered alley. But no matter where he saw himself, there next to him was the body of a dead girl. He couldn't tell whether or not Adam took away Buffy's body, because he still saw it. He watched her fall and bleed and lie there.

He couldn't tell how long he cowered in his memories. It must have been hours, but it could have been only minutes.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Jack came back to the Hub so late it was early. He had only just walked in when he heard his name whispered. He turned and smiled when he saw Ianto. After all the ghosts and unburied memories he needed some familiar companionship. He walked towards the Welshman who was sitting in the coffee area.

"Hey." Jack noticed that Ianto didn't look well. "What's wrong?"

"You'll have to put me in the vaults," Ianto said, his voice pained. "Lock me up. I killed so many girls. Strangled them."

Jack's smile had fallen into a deep frown. He didn't understand why Ianto would say these things. "Stop kidding around."

"I'm serious," Ianto replied, his voice only a hoarse whisper. "I murdered them, in cold blood. I took their bodies, and…"

He watched Ianto lurch to his feet. He kept looking back and forth; it was as if he was seeing things that weren't there.

"You have to lock me away… before I turn on you too. None of you are safe."

Ianto ran past him and stopped at the railing around the autopsy pit. Jack grabbed him. "Hey, hey. Come here, come here. What's happened to you?"

"I'm a monster," Ianto said into Jack's ear as Jack hugged him. "I killed her."

There was something different in his voice, as if with this one "her" Ianto was begging Jack's forgiveness. He looked into the autopsy pit. There were some streaks of badly cleaned blood—not Ianto's work.

"Who?"

"Buffy."

Jack felt his heart stop. It stopped and his stomach dropped. This couldn't be true. Ianto would never have done any of these things.

"_Just checking for poison," Buffy said with her best cheerleading-bimbo smile._

"_Ianto, are you trying to poison the new recruit?" Jack asked jokingly._

He didn't know anything anymore. This night had gone on too long. There was one way to get to the bottom of things. He put Ianto in the chair across from his desk and pulled out the lie detector. Ianto was gripping the chair while Jack set it up.

"Best lie detector on the planet. If something's untrue, the light turns red." Jack flipped the switch. "Go."

"My… hands on her throat. And it felt so good. Squeezing the life out of her."

Why wasn't it changing to red?

"It reads as truth," Ianto pointed out.

"I don't believe it. Okay, tell me about Buffy."

"She was standing there, at the bottom of the stairs. I held the gun. I shot her first through the chest and again in the head and stomach after she had fallen. I shot again and again and…"

"No. This is not you." Jack couldn't believe it. There was something just wrong in the story let alone that Ianto did it. The Hub logs could tell him what really happened. He turned off the machine. "Something's changed you. You're not a murderer. I'm certain of it."

He went out to the computers and pulled up the log. Looking through the thumbnails, he found what he was looking for. Adam was speaking, torturing Ianto with just his voice and touch.

His touch.

Jack pulled up feed from even earlier. A hand on Toshiko, asking if she remembered. He pulled up more videos. This time Gwen when she came in. She didn't know who Adam was until he touched her and asked her if she remembered. He tried to think back in his own thoughts. Sure enough, there were several moments where Adam touched him and said the word "remember."

Jack went over to Ianto and took his hand. He pulled him to the computer. "Come here. Come here, just look. Look."

Ianto watched as Adam drove him into screaming pain, telling him to remember.

"I figured it out," Ianto muttered.

"What?" Jack asked.

"My diary. Adam isn't in it. Buffy came in, and she said she didn't know Adam. She went over to the autopsy and…"

Jack could see that Ianto still remembered shooting Buffy, so he pulled it up on the computer. Sure enough there she was, and Ianto didn't shoot her. But Adam did.

"No," Jack breathed. She couldn't be… not now… not here… "It's not your fault, Ianto. It's not your fault. It's mine." The last sentence was barely more than a whisper.

Ianto was fixed on the screen and then on the pit as Jack went down to the refrigerator to check the blood samples. He had to be sure what he saw about Adam was what he thought it was. And then he would kill the son of a bitch.

Sure enough, there wasn't a blood sample. He asked Ianto just to be sure.

Ianto checked the records at the workstation. "Everything's in order here."

"When was it last updated?"

"Um… twenty-four hours ago."

The lights then went on and Owen stumbled in. Both Jack and Ianto pretended nothing had happened, but Jack couldn't help wondering if it was really Owen, or just the man Adam forced Owen to be.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Numbers. Words. An orange planet.

Buffy woke with a gasp. She frantically took in her surroundings. She was in some sort of small, heavy, metal box. Using all the Slayer strength she could muster, she pushed against the sides of the box. The metal wasn't too thick; it bent and buckled as she pushed. But as she did so, water started to seep in. Taking a deep breath, she pushed again. The seams on the box gave way and she was free. She was also under water. Kicking rapidly, she fought her way upward. At last she broke the surface, and gasping for breath she tried to see where she was. Luckily she was in the bay and not very far from Torchwood's tourist shop door. She swam towards it and pulled herself up over the fence.

When she at last made it into the Hub, no one was around. She closed her eyes and listened as best she could. Her ears were still a bit water-logged, but she could hear them all in the conference room.

She was almost there when she heard Tosh say angrily, "What harm has he done to us?"

"He killed Buffy!" Jack yelled.

Oh boy. She winced as she now stood in the doorway. She was hoping they wouldn't know about that.

"Jack," Gwen said, her eyes fixed on Buffy.

As Jack turned and everyone stared at her, Buffy was suddenly very self-conscious of her appearance: she was soaking wet and dripping on the floor, and her blouse had bullet holes and watered-down blood stains. But as awkward as it was, as exhausted as she suddenly felt while the adrenaline faded, she had something to say.

Words and numbers came out of her mouth. She didn't process them; she just repeated the things that kept invading her mind. The way to kill Adam.

When she finished everything blurred, spots filled her vision, and then she fell to the floor unconscious.


	19. Runs In The Family

When Buffy awoke she was in her own bed in her flat. She heard noises and smelled the distinct aroma of bacon and coffee. She walked out to the kitchen and saw Jack at the stove.

"It's not really time for breakfast anymore, but it's a universal meal." He put a plate full of pancakes and bacon in front of her, and then handed her a mug of coffee. "It's Ianto's special brew. He made and put it in the thermos special before…"

"Before what?" Buffy asked as she took a sip.

"Before I retconned everyone. Adam's gone, thanks to your instructions, but the damage was done. Are you going to argue with me about it?"

"No," she answered. "Not this time. This time… I'm glad. It makes things simple. But what about you? Adam got to you too, didn't he?"

"Yeah, but I can deal with it," he said. Then he held her eyes with his own. "Plus, there are certain things I'm not sure I want to forget. Do you want to explain how you showed up soaking wet in a blood-covered shirt with bullet holes? Thing is, I could have sworn the Hub log showed you dead."

"From what I hear, you can guess the answer: runs in the family," she replied, holding his gaze just as steady.

"How did you know? And how is it possible? I've had other children and none of them…"

"None of them had a mother who wasn't all she seemed. None of them jumped into a portal that—instead of killing them—sucked them to the other side of the galaxy and triggered the genetic energy."

"But how…" He gave her a measuring look while she ate her food. "You aren't going to tell me everything."

"When were you going to tell _me_ you had this little habit of coming back from the dead?"

"Touché. Neither of us tells anyone everything."

"You'd think we were related," Buffy joked.

Jack grinned, but then he grew serious again. "Are you all right?"

"For being shot, waking up in a tiny box, and then fighting my way through water to breathe again, I'm good. Give me some more bacon and I may even work up to peachy with a definite side of keen."

Once again, Jack laughed.

Jack stayed a while longer. The team would be asleep at the Hub for a while yet, and he was monitoring the rift remotely. While Buffy put on a great show of being fine, he knew what sort of trauma she had just been through.

"Buffy," he said as he was just about to leave, "will you be all right?"

"I'm fine, _Dad_. I'm alive aren't I?"

But as he held her gaze, his eyes knowing and full of empathy, she couldn't hold up the act any longer. When she finally let out the sobs, Jack held her close and let her cry into his shirt.

"I know," he said soothingly. "I know."

It didn't take long for her to pull herself back together. She pulled away and wiped her eyes. "Thanks… Dad."

He hugged her again and kissed her forehead. "I'll see you at work tomorrow."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

It was still early evening, so Buffy decided to get out and see a bit of the city in the remaining light before going on a patrol. Cardiff may have been quiet on the demon front, but it wasn't silent.

She passed a large area of grass that she didn't know if it was a park or more of a village green. She sat on a bench and watched a group of men playing rugby. Even with these average guys, she started to see why Giles made fun of American football. When the group split up, one man checked his cell phone and came over to her. It was Rhys.

"Buffy!" he greeted. "What brings you here?"

"Needed some air," she said.

"How's Gwen? I haven't heard from her since she had to go back to Torchwood. I've been worried with the amnesia and everything."

"Amnesia? Must have missed that. I only got back from London so late last night it was early this morning."

"Ah, yeah, she couldn't remember me. Just… poof, no memories of us. I thought Torchwood might have had something to do with it, that Jack had… but I don't know."

"It wasn't Jack," Buffy said. "There was this other guy, Adam. He was messing with everyone's memories, so my guess is that's what upset her memory of you. She should be back to normal tonight."

"That's good news."

"Oh! And she won't remember forgetting you if everything works, so don't mention anything that happened."

"My lips are sealed." He looked at his cell phone again. "So I don't need to worry that she hasn't called yet?"

"I think Jack mentioned that retcon usually makes people sleep. Then there'll be the scuttle to figure out why they've forgotten all this time. Might take a while."

"Wanna grab a drink?"

"Sure, why not?"

Rhys was a really nice guy. He didn't ask her about being a slayer. Instead he shared some very hilarious stories about his cousin and the family Watcher legacy. The Welsh view of the English lightened it up considerably.

"So Torchwood," Rhys said as they sat with their drinks in a booth at one of his favourite pubs. "What's a slayer doing there?"

"It's something to do," she answered. "I may not be the only slayer now, but as far as I know I'm the only slayer that fights aliens."

"It must be weird not being the Chosen One anymore… but in a good way."

"Yeah, it takes the pressure off. I can come here and not worry about any hellmouths being neglected."

"So how'd you join Torchwood?" he asked and then took a swig of beer.

"Jack brought me on board," she said, keeping it vague.

"Are you and him…"

"What?"

"A couple?"

"No! God no! No. Just… no."

"Okay, no. It's just you seem really similar."

Oh, why not tell him? "Jack's my biological father. He didn't know about me until I came, which is why I came. Joining Torchwood just kinda happened and felt right."

"Your dad? Blimey, how young was he?"

Buffy laughed. "He's a man of mysteries. I wouldn't take the age at face value."

"Right," Rhys nodded. "I just wish he wasn't so good looking. He's not gay, is he?"

"I don't think you can put any sort of label on Captain Jack Harkness," Buffy said. "But he is in a relationship with Ianto, if that helps."

"Oh, it does."

"Gwen didn't tell you?"

"Nah, we're still trying to figure things out now that I know what she does."

"How's that working?" she asked. He only let out a heavy sigh but then smiled. "Give it time; you'll get there."

"It's just… sometimes I feel like she's settling. I mean, look at me. I know I'm not…"

"Don't even finish that sentence," Buffy interrupted. "I've known you for all how much time in how many days, and I would have loved to have a guy like you in my life. Don't let her go because you feel like you don't measure up. She needs you—more than she lets on. Just be you and love her, and you should be fine."

"Sounds like you've had experience," Rhys said, and she could tell he was taking it to heart.

"Yeah, there was an ex who left me because he didn't feel appreciated enough. There was a whole list of reasons added to that why it was never going to work, but at the time…"

"Has to be tough, being in a relationship and being a slayer. Not a lot of men could handle their inadequacy issues next to you."

"Yeah," she agreed. Riley didn't feel man enough, and Angel didn't feel worthy enough.

"Terrific gal like you, you'll find a guy," Rhys said kindly.

"And speaking of finding a guy, I need to go out and find some evil to slay."

"I should check on Gwen. See if she's answering her phone or at home. And don't worry, I remember. Not a word about her memory lapse or Adam or anything from the past forty-eight hours." He gave her a friendly half hug when they left the pub. "You might try the university. Drunk students are easy targets. Plus there are all those nuts pulling all-nighters with their books, staying out too late in the library."

Rhys was spot on with his advice. She caught two vampires lurking a little ways from the university library. She staked one and chased the other to its nest in the sewers. There were three more there. None of them were bright, and it took no time at all taking them out.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When Buffy entered the Hub the next morning, she overheard Gwen talking with Owen and Tosh.

"And he won't tell you anything?" Tosh asked Gwen. She smiled at Buffy when she saw her, and Owen gave a head nod as Buffy took her seat next to him.

"Nothing," Gwen answered Tosh's question. "And I know something happened that he knows about."

"Not so great being on the other end of someone keeping secrets, is it?" Buffy said. It was a simple statement of fact without any meanness or sarcasm. But it still visibly rattled Gwen.

"Do you know what happened?" Owen asked Buffy.

"What happened when?" Buffy asked.

"We can't remember the past two days," Tosh said. "Jack does, but he only says not to worry about."

"Nothing else?" Buffy asked.

"Not one word more," Owen grumbled.

"All information and video from that day has been wiped," Tosh said.

"Hmm," Buffy murmured.

"So?" Gwen asked impatiently. "Do you know anything?"

"Nothing worth mentioning," Buffy said.

"Now what is that supposed to mean?" Owen asked.

Buffy had turned to her computer and was pulling up the files she had been working on. "Just what I said: I know nothing worth sharing with the group right now. And if Jack thinks you don't need to know, who am I to share—if I in fact know anything?"

"That is so like Jack," Gwen complained. "It's so maddening!"

"I don't think you know anything," Owen said, but Buffy only smiled. "Ianto, did you get anything out of Jack?"

Ianto had just joined them and handed around coffee for everyone. "Nothing," he replied.

Buffy was typing with one hand and took a mouthful of coffee with the other. When she put the mug down she felt everyone staring at her. "What?"

"You didn't do your usual sniff, taste, sip for poison routine," Owen pointed out. Tosh looked surprised, Gwen confused, and Ianto had his usual expression but marked by a decided blink.

Buffy shrugged her shoulders. "It's not that big a deal, guys."

"So I'm not trying to poison you?" Ianto asked.

"Don't think so," she replied.

He walked away. Tosh returned to her work, and Gwen went to try and wear Jack down about the missing memories. Owen still looked at Buffy.

"So what really is the reason?" Owen asked her in a quiet whisper.

"Let's just say that in all the perfectly forget-worthy stuff that happened during the past day, I know Ianto isn't going to try and kill me."

Owen made little noises of frustration as she had just proven that she knew exactly what everyone else had forgotten and was deliberately not telling them. Buffy smiled. While she was sympathetic to having memories altered, knowing exactly what and why they lost those days made their reactions amusing for her to watch. Jack came out of his office, moving away from Gwen. He caught Buffy's eye and they both grinned. Owen watched the exchange with suspicious eyes, but was prevented from saying anything by Tosh's alert going off.

"Jack," Tosh said, "there's a report of what may be a weevil loose near Leckwith."

"May be?" Jack asked.

"Fits the general description, but no CCTV to confirm it."

"Just one?"

"Yes," Tosh confirmed.

"Ianto, Owen, why don't you guys go check that out?" Jack ordered. They nodded and started gathering things before leaving. "Buffy, come with me."

Buffy followed Jack down to a tunnel that had been set up as a shooting range. Guns, safety glasses, and those plastic sound-dampening earmuffs were set out on a table. Instead of the usual body outline and numbered circles there were paper targets of weevils.

"Show me what you got," Jack said and pointed to the table.

"What? Just have at it so you can then correct my technique?"

He grinned. She looked at the guns on the table. Picking one up, she loaded it, and then without any further preparation raised the gun and shot several rounds at the target. She then looked at Jack. The grin had been replaced with an open mouth as he looked at the holes neatly gathered around the head and heart of the weevil (assuming the heart was located in the same area as humans and most demons).

"How…"

"Slayer reflexes."

"But you… and guns…"

"Just because I don't like them doesn't mean I don't know how to use them." She put the gun back down on the table. "Should I test the rest of your firearms, or are we done here?"

"We're done," he answered, still in shock at the deadly accuracy with so little apparent attention.

He followed her back to her station and leaned against the desk with his back to the screens. He gave her a long searching look for a moment. "You're good with guns, very good. If that's how you are with a weapon you hate, how are you with the ones you do like?"

She grinned smugly. "You really don't know much about slayers, do you?"

"The one and only that I met, we didn't talk shop much. Mostly we just stayed in."

There was no mistaking the reason they stayed in; sometimes she wished her father wasn't quite so open about sexual matters.

"I don't really want the details," Buffy said. "But remind me to show you what I can do with a sword or crossbow."

"Crossbow's too conspicuous and not very practical. The sword I'll consider."

"It's all I ask… and the understanding that the first weapon I'll pull out is a knife or stake."

"I could really go for a steak right now. How long is it till lunch?" He looked at the clock on her desk.

"Because you're the first one to make _that_ joke," Buffy muttered.

"Jack," Owen's voice came over the comm. "It's not a weevil, but it's definitely something big, bad, and ugly. We're going to need backup on this one. Big backup. Guns aren't working."

Jack looked at Buffy. "I think it's time to grab that sword."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

There was no time to grab her sword back at her flat. She made a mental note to keep a weapons chest in Torchwood from now on, and maybe even another set of weapons in the SUV as well. It was a very short trip to Leckwith Woods with Jack's intense driving. She felt slightly safer in the small car than she might have in the large SUV, but only slightly.

"Where did you learn to drive? Indianapolis?" she asked as they got out of the car.

He just pulled out his gun and started running towards the sounds of Owen, Ianto, and growling. Owen held off the huge beast with a branch while Ianto held back. Shooting it had made it angry. Buffy ran right past the men. It was screaming demon to her slayer senses. She jumped back from a swing of its huge claws. She kicked its middle and it stumbled back. While it was unsteady and the claws were down she continued to kick and punch it, but soon it regained its footing and swiped at her again. It caught her arm and left long bloody gashes, but they weren't deep enough to prevent use of the arm.

"Shouldn't we be helping her?" Owen said to Jack, who had a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

"Our guns are useless," Ianto said.

"She'll handle it," Jack said. He tried to sound more confident than he was.

Buffy leapt over the demon and came up quickly behind it. With a quick and powerful yank, she snapped the thing's neck. It fell to the ground.

She looked up over the fallen carcase and smiled. "That was fun!"

Jack laughed more in relief than humour and helped Ianto take the carcase to the SUV. Owen fussed over Buffy's injured arm. They fought the whole way back to the Hub about it: she said it was fine and just needed to be washed off, and he insisted on stitches and heavy bandages. In the end, Buffy won the argument. After cleaning the wounds Owen had to admit that there was even then a sign of healing. He did convince her to let him bandage it; she didn't want blood all over the inside of her new jacket, now did she?

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy had time enough to put down her keys and carefully pull off her jacket before her cell phone rang. Ready to put the jacket back on, Buffy looked at the caller ID and then relaxed and dropped the jacket.

"Spike," she said as she answered the call. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"

"So it's a pleasure when I call now?" he teased back at her sarcasm.

"Did you need—ow—something?" She had pulled at her wounded arm while moving the phone to her other hand.

"Are you injured?"

"God, it's like you're psychic or something," she grumbled. "But if you must know I got a bit clawed up at work today."

"Thought the big boss man wasn' letting you out and about to attack the nasty aliens."

"We've come to a compromise. And it wasn't alien, just garden variety demon… with big claws."

"Apparently. I just called to see how you were gettin' on is all. Where was this fancy team while you were gettin' mauled?"

"Standing back at a safe distance," she replied defensively. "It was really big and impervious to guns."

"Did you get in your 'I told you so' speech?"

"Not this time," she said with a laugh. "I'll have to remember that next time. I wanted to work more on my 'I was right' dance first."

He laughed, but afterwards she could feel the shift in mood. "Take care of yourself, Slayer."

"Don't I always?" With that they ended the conversation.

At moments like this, where he so obviously worried about her, she felt a twinge of guilt over not telling him about her little "I come back from the dead" trick. But it wasn't something for over the phone, and she had no idea when she'd ever be back in California to see him face to face. And even then it was doubtful she'd tell him. At least Jack knew. That was one weight off her shoulders. Someday soon the rest of the team would once again find out, and when they did she hoped they would remember it.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

_I know, I know. It was mean to retcon everyone so that they don't remember Buffy's big secret. They'll find out soon. It won't be as epic, but hopefully it will be funny. I haven't quite worked it out yet and am open to suggestions._


	20. In Case of Fire

The next morning Owen was grumbling again; this time it was as he dissected the demon they had brought in yesterday.

"What is this? This doesn't make any sense. Would you look at the state of this intestine?"

Buffy leaned over the rail watching. "Something wrong, British doctor man?"

"What do you call this thing?" he asked her, clearly annoyed by the demon and her happy attitude. "Its insides don't make any sense."

"No clue," Buffy answered. "I'll ask Giles."

"Who?" Owen asked.

But Buffy didn't answer. Owen continued to grumble about the demon and threw in a few new remarks about blondes that just up and left without giving proper, useful answers. Buffy meanwhile was sending photos of the demon to Giles' email account.

It didn't take too long for Giles to respond. Just reading the email she could imagine all the "good lords" and glasses-polishing he must have done before writing back to her.

"Jack," Buffy called. "We've got a problem."

"What is it?" he asked while coming over. Gwen was busy, but Toshiko listened to them while she looked on from her work station.

"That demon Owen's cutting up—which I'm only not objecting to because I wasn't sent to kill it for the purpose of cutting it up—is an Yrak N'ashuren."

"A what?"

"Yrak N'ashuren. And now we've got a problem. They're body guards to the Alavet."

"Body guards? So now that we've killed the body guard we still have the Alavet to worry about. How bad is an Alavet?"

"Pretty bad," Buffy said while glancing through the email again. "According to Giles it's probably come to Cardiff to feed off of the rift energy. Usually that energy repulses demons rather than attracts them."

"But we've got an exception here," Jack surmised.

"Yeah. Feeding off rift instead of hellmouth energy might have some epically bad consequences."

"How bad?" he asked.

"End of the world bad," she replied.

"Two questions," Owen said as he joined them. "What does it look like and can we kill it?"

"Um… I'm not sure," Buffy said.

"Why not?" Jack asked.

"Essentially… it's a zombie."

"A zombie?" Tosh asked. "Do those even exist?"

"I've come across a few different variations," Buffy answered. "It gets tricky killing something that's already dead. Decapitation, stake to the heart, fire, bullets through the head, those _might_ work. Other times there's some sort of controlling power source that needs to be destroyed. Giles is going to get back to me as soon as he finds the method for this one."

Jack was mulling that over when Toshiko's rift alert starting beeping.

"There's some minor rift activity in Trowbridge," she announced.

"All right, Ianto and Gwen with me on that," Jack ordered. "Owen, stay here with that demon. I want to know if there is anything that might tell us where it's been recently. Buffy, I trust you to handle the zombie problem. Tosh, stay here and monitor us. Let's move people!"

Tosh got busy pulling up map scans and CCTV while the group left. Buffy leaned on the rail watching Owen as he took another look at the demon corpse.

"Find out where it's been," he muttered. "Right."

"Oh come on," Buffy encouraged cheerfully. "They do this all the time on CSI."

Owen raised an eyebrow and glared at her. "Not exactly helpful."

Buffy made a show of thinking about it. "Usually they find some sort of pollen or dirt unique to one tiny little spot. That might be a bit unlikely."

"A bit?" Owen griped. He was huffing, and puffing, and complaining to himself again. Buffy went back to her station to check if Giles had replied yet.

"Anything yet?" Tosh asked her.

"A quick line about some minor leads," Buffy said. "If we were back at the Magic Box I'd tune this stuff out until it became important. But Giles _has_ to be thorough."

"I think I've got something that will help Owen," said Tosh.

"Really?" Buffy then yelled, "Owen!"

"What?" he demanded angrily. Buffy pointed to Tosh with a smile.

"We know where the Yrak N'ashuren was yesterday," Tosh started.

"Yeah, Tosh, I was there."

"But how did it get there?" she pointed out. "I've been running a program to back track it on the CCTV. I traced it to a warehouse and didn't find any sign of it before that until two days ago. I looked over more footage from outside the warehouse over the past two weeks. It shows up again and again."

"You think it was living there?" Owen more stated than asked. "Nice work, Tosh. Thanks."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Buffy said suddenly.

"What is it?" Owen asked.

"Giles found how to kill the zombie."

"How?" Tosh asked.

"A solution of water and 0.2 percent chlorine. The amount of chlorine is apparently 'of the utmost importance.'" She gave her best Giles impersonation. Tosh ducked her head to hide her laugh, and Owen openly stared at her. "What?"

"That's your English accent?" he asked her. Buffy glared as he shook his head and muttered, "Rubbish."

"Yeah, and how does your American go?" Buffy shot back at him.

"So chlorine and water?" Owen restated to divert the conversation.

"I'm guessing it won't be near any pools," Buffy said.

"Tosh, are there any pools near that warehouse?" Owen asked.

"None," she replied.

"All right," Buffy said in her best I'm-in-charge voice. "Owen, can you mix the solution together? Then I'll go kill it."

"You'll need backup," Owen said loudly as he went to prepare the water and chlorine.

"Fine, but try not to get in the way or end up the victim." She turned back to Tosh. "How are things with the others?"

"They haven't found anything at the site, so they are canvassing the area to see what might have come through." Tosh stared at Buffy's frown. "Is something wrong?"

"Aside from hunting down a zombie? No… it's just weird stopping world-ending danger with only part of the group." Buffy then saw Tosh becoming worried too. "It's probably nothing. If it needed a body guard how tough can it be?"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"I had to jinx myself," Buffy muttered as she came into the main part of the warehouse. There were three more of the Yak-something-or-other bodyguards in addition to the really big, really ugly zombie. She had come armed with a large squirt gun rifle and a sword on her back.

Owen was right behind her as they hid behind crates to scout the warehouse. He whispered, "You can't take out the guards and the zombie."

"I was noticing that," she replied.

He looked around the inside of the building. "I've got an idea. Take out the guards; I may be able to handle the big guy."

Owen ran silently back outside the warehouse. He hit his comm. "Tosh, I need you to get the blueprints for the warehouse."

"Already done," she said.

"Where does the fire sprinkler system get its water from?"

"There's a tank on the roof. The ladder is on the north side of the building."

"You don't happen to see the easiest way to activate the fire alarm to get the sprinklers to go off, do you?" he asked as he climbed up the ladder holding a jug of chlorine.

"Leave that to me," Tosh said. "Just let me know when the solution reads at 0.2 percent."

Owen placed the device to measure the chlorine levels and started to slowly pour in the chlorine. He hoped Buffy was holding out against those demons, and he especially hoped that she wouldn't be too angry getting soaked.

"All right, Tosh, what now?"

"I can't hack into the warehouse to set off the sprinklers, but if you go through the door just east of you, there should be a way there to set off the alarm."

"Let's hope this works, Tosh," Owen said as he ran to the door. Sure enough, just down the stairs was a "Break Glass in Case of Fire." At last he could listen to the temptation to break the damn glass. He pulled the alarm and ran back down to the main area.

Two of the demons were dead and Buffy was locked in battle with the last. The zombie was watching the fight from a distance. As Buffy moved in for the kill, the zombie looked about to make its move. Luckily that's when the sprinklers activated.

Buffy hacked off the head of the last demon, and the zombie convulsed to the ground in the solution spraying from above.

The bad guys defeated, Owen went to shut off the alarm. He and Buffy then managed the cleanup by piling the bodies and burning them. Being so wet it required a lot of accelerant, but soon the job was done.

As he had predicted, Buffy wasn't happy about being wet.

"My socks in my boots are all squishy," she complained.

"I think saving the world was a little more important than the state of your socks," Owen shot back. Buffy only stuck out her lip in a pout. "I'll take you home to dry off and change."

During the drive Owen was regaled with tales of various clothing disasters she had been victim to over the years. From the sound of it, she was more concerned about her hair and the chlorine than her clothes this time. Owen tried not to laugh and make things worse. He concentrated on driving.

Owen insisted on walking Buffy up to her flat. Though he wasn't as soaked through as Buffy, Owen hadn't escaped getting wet. Buffy offered the use of her clothes dryer for his wet jacket. Then it was decided that they should go back to the hub together. While he waited for Buffy to wash the chlorine out of her hair, Owen went to the kitchen to fix them something to eat.

"Should have worn the leather jacket," he grumbled when she came out dry and dressed.

"I'm pretty sure that leather and water don't mix well."

"I'd at least be drier," he said. "And there's nothing Ianto can't fix when it comes to clothing."

"But then you would have had to beg Ianto for the favour," she pointed out. "I think borrowing my dryer is the better deal. Lunch ready?"

"Hope you fancy omelettes." He slid a plate over to her as they sat on the bar stools at her countertop. "So how's it been? Living here in Cardiff, I mean."

"It's fine, I guess. Colder than I'm used to, that's for sure."

"You just need someone to help keep you warm."

Buffy stared as he leaned towards her. Her eyes went wide.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no," she said quickly and quietly.

He held his hands up and pulled back. "All right. No. Why not?"

"I… You're a friend, Owen, and I can't see it ever being more than that."

"So you don't even want to try? Buffy, you're one of the most incredible girls I've ever met."

"I can't. I don't feel that way about you. And I can't… Tosh is my friend too. Oh God, it's my first year at Sunnydale all over again."

He looked at her with some confusion. "What does Tosh have to do with it?"

"She likes you, you big idiot."

"Tosh. Likes. Me. _Likes me_ likes me? You're joking." He frowned while she shook her head. "You're not joking? Bloody hell. Then… Oh dear. It's all making sense now."

"If by that you mean you feel like a jerk for showing off your relationships with other women in front of her, then yeah. Go with the feeling."

"And if I don't feel the same way about Tosh?" he asked angrily.

"You do," Buffy said. "You just don't know it yet."

He sighed and still looked upset. "We better be getting back."

The car ride back to the hub was silent. Buffy decided it was probably best to leave him alone with his thoughts.

"How was your little rift scavenger hunt?" Owen asked the group as he went to his station. "Find anything cool?"

"Nothing but space junk," Jack answered.

"Well, _we_ saved the word from total zombie destruction," Owen gloated back.

"I'll need the full report on that," Jack said.

"We've got ours done," Ianto said as he passed by.

Everyone was smiling while Owen started grumbling again.


	21. Old Doc Crazy Had a Pharm

Buffy was just about to throw the paper airplane she had been crafting for the past hour at Gwen when Tosh called out a weevil sighting. Jack assigned Buffy with Tosh and Owen as her backup. Buffy opened her mouth to protest—she didn't need any backup for just one weevil—but Jack cut her off.

"Orders are orders," he said firmly, as if it would make a difference with her. "You worked in UNIT, so you should be used to them by now."

"In UNIT _I_ gave the orders," she grumbled. Owen smiled as they grabbed their gear and headed out.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When they got to the warehouse and picked up the weevil's trail, Buffy ran after it without bothering to make sure the others were with her. They could catch-up later. She thought she had it when it suddenly paused, but when it saw her it ran again. She paused only a moment to see what made it stop: there was a dead body on the floor.

"Owen!" she shouted. "We've got a corpse here."

She ran in pursuit of the weevil while Owen and Tosh dealt with the body. She didn't really want them with her when she got the weevil anyways. They'd remind her about the capture half of pursue and capture. Her slayer instincts were all about pursue and kill, and she stuck by her instincts. It was a quick battle before snapping the weevil's neck. As she hauled the carcass onto her back she thought wistfully about the ease of killing vampires. They at least were polite enough to turn to dust and not leave her with any cleanup. She went to rejoin her fellow Torchwoodians.

"You got it?" Owen asked from where he crouched over the body.

"You killed it!" Tosh exclaimed.

"Or did it just break its neck by itself?" Owen added sarcastically.

"I think I hit it too hard," Buffy said with fake contriteness. "Oops."

"Well, we've got to get both of these corpses back to the hub," Owen said.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Once more everyone (excepting Ianto) was gathered around autopsy while Owen did his thing. Buffy sat on the steps while Jack and Tosh leaned on the railings, and Gwen hovered over Owen and the body.

"Documents on the body identify the victim as Meredith Roberts," Jack said.

"I thought Meredith was a girl's name," Buffy said.

"Last I checked, you really aren't one to be an authority on names," Owen said to her playfully. "No obvious signs of trauma."

"My mother gave me my name," Buffy said defensively.

"Joyce was a good woman… taste in names aside," Jack cut in before Owen could insult Buffy's mum.

"Wait," Gwen said. "Are we saying it wasn't the Weevil that killed him?"

"Give me a chance, Miss Cooper," Owen said. "I've only just started."

"It wasn't the Weevil," Buffy said.

"And how do you know that?" Owen argued back.

"He doesn't smell like a weevil. Has no one but me noticed the smell? This guy reeks of dead body and not a sewer."

"Well, give it up for Miss Marple," Owen muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Ianto's voice came from the speakers. "Jack, your VIP visitor is here."

"I didn't realize we were having a visitor," said Gwen.

They all followed Jack to the cog door entrance—Buffy and Owen arguing along the way.

"I am _not_ Miss Marple. She was way old."

"There's not all that many female detectives," Owen said.

"And just what was Nancy Drew?"

He didn't have time to answer as the door rolled opened and Jack was giving some speech about nightingales.

"Martha Jones," he said as he grinned and winked to the woman who walked in.

"Martha!" Buffy squealed in true California girl fashion.

"Buffy? Oh my god!" The two hugged. "I had no idea you'd be in Torchwood now."

"You two know each other?" Jack interrupted. He looked a little peeved that his big moment had just been overshadowed by squeeing girls.

"Briefly," Martha said. "Way back, and yet not so long ago."

"There was a thing," Buffy said evasively.

"How about a hug for me, huh?" Jack pouted.

Martha obliged happily. "Oh, it's good to see you, Jack."

Jack introduced the rest of the team. "Toshiko, Owen, Gwen, Ianto… meet Martha."

"Uh, just a casual visit or… ?" Owen left the question hanging.

Martha picked up her bag. "I'm here to complete your postmortem."

Owen looked confused so Jack explained. "Dr. Jones is from UNIT."

And they were all heading back to the autopsy pit.

"Oh, um, sorry, sorry," Gwen was saying as she ran to catch up. "I get a bit confused. I know Buffy was part of it, but which one's UNIT?"

"Intelligence, military, cute red caps—the acceptable face of intelligence-gathering on aliens. We're more ad hoc. But better looking."

"Eh," Buffy said. In response Jack held out his arms as if to say 'what could be better looking than me.'

Martha ignored them and got straight to business. "I identified a pattern from UNIT's data on sudden deaths. Toxic shock. Nothing to link the victims. Different ages, sexes, ethnic origins, occupations. But there was a statistically significant concentration in South Wales."

"Come on, Martha, be honest," said Jack. "You just came all this way to see me."

"Still struggling to conquer your shyness, Jack?"

He laughed. When Martha and Owen started talking about needles, Buffy left. Part of her hospital fear was a fear of needles. Needles, scalpels, and hospital beds. The morgue, of course, wasn't exactly pleasant either, but she was rather immune to dead bodies coming back to life suddenly. Dead bodies that stayed dead were creepy though.

They all gathered around Tosh's station to discover that this dead guy's medical records were nonexistent. Jack let Tosh work her hacking magic. He gestured for Martha to go into his office, but she shook her head, held up a hand, and tilted her head towards Buffy. He nodded and went into his office. Martha joined Buffy.

"So Torchwood?" she asked. "When did that happen?"

"Just after you got back from your adventure on Messaline—according to Donna. And a few days after I met you for lunch in London."

"Wow, that soon."

"Well it was a few years later for me."

"But how did you decide to come here? Did Jack ask because you were with the Doctor?"

"No, I haven't exactly gotten around to telling him about that. I needed a change of scene and here I am."

"He doesn't know?"

"Not yet. I'll tell him… eventually."

When Martha went into Jack's office, Owen came over to Buffy.

"All right, how do you really know Martha? You don't expect me to believe 'a thing a while back,' do you?"

"A UNIT thing. You don't have the clearance to hear about it."

"Really?" He still sounded as if he didn't believe her.

"Yes, a classified UNIT thing… and we kind of have the same doctor, so we crossed paths. Don't you have work to be doing right now?"

Buffy pretended to be busy herself.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

When Martha, Jack and Gwen came back from The Tour, Owen started showing off his "singularity scalpel." Buffy got a seat out of danger on the couch and enjoyed watching Ianto duck and scream. But even that couldn't faze the Welshman for more than a moment. He took a breath and reported the next victim was found alive and was now in the hospital. Everyone automatically took off. Buffy stayed behind with Tosh.

When they came back Owen and Martha got to work analyzing their samples, and then everyone got together for the briefing. Buffy kept out of the way enough to be overlooked for any assignment. This whole thing with death by needles and hospitals wasn't her thing. Jack seemed to notice. He pulled her aside when everyone dispersed.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I stand against the darkest, ugliest, most terrifying monsters without any sign of shaking in my boots. But this case… has me a little wigged. It's not exactly my territory."

"You need to stand down?"

"Am I needed?"

"Not at the moment. You're right; this is Martha and Owen's field more than yours. Take the rest of the day off."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy did a quick sweep around the university again, but feeling restless she decided to return to the Hub to see how things were going.

When she came into the Hub Owen and Tosh were having an intense discussion with Jack watching—if it were any tenser it would have been a full out argument.

"We have to get her out of there," Owen was saying.

"That place is swamped in security," Tosh said. "If we try and steam in, we'll be putting her at risk!"

"We can't leave her there can we?" Owen protested.

"If I can't get her signal back in thirty minutes, then we think of alternatives."

"Anything could be happening to her in there."

"Martha can handle herself," Jack interjected. "She's been in worse situations than this."

"Sure about that?" Owen asked.

"If he's not, I am," Buffy said as she joined them. "At least I'm assuming so because the whole planet isn't about to be destroyed while she's been kidnapped and replaced by an evil twin. Right? It's not _that_ bad?"

Jack shrugged and Owen looked even more frustrated and nervous. Buffy just watched without knowing what had happened while she was gone—no one looked in a sharing mood just then. It wasn't long after that Ianto said he had someone who would be able to get them in to save Martha. Minutes later they brought the guy in and down to the cells for interrogation.

Jack didn't even wait to see what Buffy had to say. "We're just going to frighten him a little. Won't lay a hand on him."

"I wasn't going to say you couldn't do that," Buffy muttered as he left. After all, she'd roughed up Willie the Snitch a number of times for information.

She watched with Tosh on the monitors as Ianto led in a Weevil while Jack and Owen watched and questioned the guy.

"Why didn't I think of doing that more?" Buffy asked herself aloud.

"Use a Weevil for intimidation?"

"You gotta admit it works nicely."

Tosh only smiled in response. Then she frowned as she looked at the screens. "What the…"

Buffy winced as she watched the blood spurt from the man's mouth. Owen tried to save him, but the man was dead and there was a giant dragonfly in the cell.

"Okay, I've missed some things," Buffy said. "Where'd the alien come from?"

"The testing facility we've lost Martha in has been using this alien to create a drug that can cure anything. Unfortunately it also incubates these aliens that then explode from the body and kill the host."

"Eugh," Buffy said with a shudder. "It's like one of Xander's favourite movies. And Jack wanted to use this now dead guy to get us in and save Martha? I think we have a problem with that."

"Unless…" Tosh trailed off in thought and starting typing away on her computer. Ianto came in and Tosh turned to him. "Ianto, what have you done with Billy Davis' body?"

"Um, I was just about to dispose of it. Why?"

"I've thought of a way we can use him to get us into the Pharm." Both Ianto and Buffy looked over her shoulder at what she pulled up. "Clever, huh?"

"I like it," Buffy said.

"Oh, you are warped on the inside. How do you think of these things?"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The team all piled into the back of a jeep. Buffy was squished between Jack and Ianto across from the others while Tosh controlled the car from her laptop. When they made it through and got out, Buffy followed Jack and Owen.

When they burst into the room with Martha tied to the table, tubes in her arm, Buffy froze. Her head swam with images of her cousin dying in the hospital, her mom's stay there, her mom in the morgue. Jack was arguing with the doctor in the room, but Buffy didn't register what they were saying.

"Buffy." Owen's voice broke through her haze. "Help me with this, would you?"

She focused on the tasks he set her and pushed through her fear. She had to help save Martha now. Martha's stomach was moving from the alien inside it—the thing that was killing her. She held Martha while Owen pulled out the singularity scalpel and started tweaking the dials. Then Buffy heard Jack and the other man arguing.

"You abused the Mayflies, you turned them into parasites!" Jack said.

"We didn't understand how the Mayflies reproduced. We tried to limit the damage."

"What, by murdering people?"

"They were going to die anyway. We're on the edge of the greatest discovery in history. It's gotta be worth a few sacrifices! You must understand that, Jack; you're involved in alien research."

"Not like this. I'm closing this place down." Inwardly Buffy was cheering for her father.

"In your dreams. This is a state of the art, official facility."

"Oh, I'm not going to do it by sending a memo. We're in control of your IT systems. As we speak, we're crashing your data banks, wiping your records."

"That's cyber terrorism!"

"And that's just for starters. We're going to trip the systems of your fire, radiation and biohazard safety networks. The power will cut, sprinklers will be activated, and a large part of this facility will be sealed and flooded with inert gases."

"The aliens will die."

"They're already dying. This way they'll be put out of their misery."

"For God's sake, we're on the same side!"

"No. Combating hostile aliens is one thing, but this is slavery, exploitation, a war crime!" Under different circumstances, Buffy would have been very glad that Jack could see that difference.

"Jack," Owen shouted. He was getting ready to use the scalpel because Martha was dangerously close to dying.

"What the hell are you doing to her?" In the distraction, the doctor disappeared from the room.

"This is the only way we'll save Martha," Owen argued. "I think I understand how it works."

"You'd better be sure because it's never worked before. Owen, are you sure it's safe?"

"Okay, Buffy pull back!"

Owen ignored Jack's question, but Jack wasn't giving up. "Owen, tell me you're sure! You could kill her with that thing. We're losing her!"

Martha bolted upright and then fell back again. Everything was still while the monitor buzzed. After a moment it started beating again and Martha coughed.

"Oh, bloody hell, it worked. Thank God for that," Owen said.

"Let's get her out of here," Jack said to Buffy while Owen gathered up his things.

Buffy helped Owen support Martha while Jack led the way out of the building. Just to show everything was fine, Owen was flirting again. "I am prescribing rest and recuperation for you, madam, and a few days in bed, preferably under my supervision."

"Owen, I don't know how to break this to you—I've got a fiancé."

"Yeah, but has he saved your life like I did?"

They were outside and Martha stood on her own power. "Um, yes, actually."

Owen's face fell. "Oh."

Buffy laughed and joined up with Jack. He was giving Tosh the order to shut the place down.

"Well?" he asked Buffy as she looked at him.

"We did good," she said.

"Did you really think I was going to let you just walk away?" The crazy doctor was back and he held a gun pointed towards them. Owen was moving in front of Martha, so Buffy crept just behind him. "You've ruined everything I've worked for."

"Now, let's not be stupid. Okay?" Owen said.

Why does everyone try to reason with the crazy guy with the gun? Buffy thought. At least Gwen had the right idea to pull out her gun. Buffy moved closer to Owen, but kept the man still in sight. She pulled the knife from out of her boot and gripped it.

"We're both rational men, scientists." Owen slowly moved towards the crazy doctor. "I know you don't want to shoot."

It all happened in slow motion. She saw him pull the trigger. With one hand she pulled Owen to the ground while the other shot the knife straight into the man's chest. But the bullet had escaped the barrel of the gun and hit her in the chest. The force of it pushed her to the ground. She couldn't breathe and everything was fading into black.

Why did this keep happening to her?

* * *

_And the secret's out! Also, Owen. Not remotely dead. My story, my way, things are gonna be different from here on. _


	22. Truth At Last

_Old Doc Crazy had a Pharm, E-I-E-I-oh good, no one's dead. Well... permanently dead anyways. Or permanently dead in a walking around way... Anyhow, no confounded Owen corpses here.  
_

* * *

When Buffy gasped awake she was in the back of a car with Martha and Owen hovering over her. Martha pulled back with shock on her face. Owen seemed somewhat surprised, but he got over it quickly after a glance to Jack and then back at her.

"What happened?" Buffy asked as she slowly sat up. The rest of the team were not in the car.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

For Owen, things were going both in slow motion and at double speed. He pulled himself up slowly while Jack and Gwen rushed at the injured Copley. He moved over the ground just a couple of feet to Buffy's body. He checked for breathing, for a pulse, but the blood all over her shirt and the ground told him all too clearly that she was dead. He was almost startled when Martha was suddenly there too and trying to revive Buffy. She desperately pumped Buffy's chest and Owen had to pull her off.

"She's gone," he said hollowly as he held onto the other doctor. He looked up at Jack. Owen expected to see more open grief on the captain's face, but instead it was oddly closed.

Jack looked around as he sorted through the next course of actions they needed to take. He looked at the jeep they had used with the dead man behind the wheel. "Ianto, find us some other way of getting back."

The Welshman nodded silently and immediately left to do that. Giving him a job was the best thing at that moment.

"Gwen?" It was all he had to say for her to follow Ianto. Jack walked over to Toshiko. "I want you to make extra sure this is all taken care of."

She looked at him through tears. "Jack, how can… She's…"

"Tosh, we have a job to finish, and then we can deal with everything else." He put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a slight but comforting squeeze. "Please, Tosh."

She nodded.

Ianto and Gwen came back with two smaller utility vehicles. Jack lifted Buffy into the back of one and Owen and Martha followed her. Jack got behind the wheel. Gwen, Ianto, and Tosh took the other car.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy didn't get an answer. Martha was too shocked, and Owen was yelling at Jack.

"You knew this would happen, didn't you? And you didn't say anything! Would it have killed you, Harkness, just to say 'don't worry, she'll be up again in a minute?' Would it? Because right now I'd like to bloody kill you for not saying anything!"

"I don't understand," Martha said when Owen stopped for breath. "How could Jack know…"

"Because she's his bleeding daughter," Owen replied.

"Actually I've stopped bleeding," Buffy said. "Headache from coming back aside, I feel much better right now."

"Glad to hear it," Jack said.

Owen was doing his best impression of a fish. His eyes were bulging and his mouth opened and closed and opened again without making any sound.

"Wait," Martha said, still confused. "How… The Doctor said…"

"The impossible daughter of an impossible man," Jack said.

"Who the bloody hell is this _Doctor_?" Owen shouted. "All three of you keep talking about this mysterious doctor, and as a physician I want to know who the hell he is!"

"Three?" Jack asked. "Buffy?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention," she said with overly sweet, false innocence. "Those missing years, I was travelling with the Doctor. That's how I met Martha and joined UNIT. He's also the one who told me about you."

"And you're telling me about this only now?" Jack said angrily. Owen muttered something about not being the only one feeling that way. They had pulled into the Torchwood parking area, but no one moved to get out of the car. The others had already arrived and were presumably in the Hub.

"Is anyone going to answer my question?" Owen grumbled.

"He doesn't have any other name… that he'd tell us anyways," Martha explained.

"He's just this alien going around space and time calling himself the Doctor," Buffy said.

"How…"

"Don't ask," Jack grumbled testily. More and more of his secrets were out in the open and he wasn't sure he liked it. Not to mention all the secrets being kept from him that were now coming out.

They all got out of the car and went into the Hub. If no one noticed the rest of the team's surprise at seeing no one carrying Buffy's body, they certainly couldn't miss the shock at seeing her up, alive, and walking.

"Oh my God!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Buffy?" Tosh said as if not believing her eyes.

Ianto nearly dropped a coffee cup. Nearly.

"But they said you were dead," Gwen said.

"I got better," Buffy said with a shrug. "Family, slayer thing. Just give me some of Ianto's magic coffee and I'll be peachy keen again."

"I think we could all use some of that," Jack said.

"Already brewed and waiting," Ianto answered.

"Remind me later to pay tribute to the Almighty Coffee God," Jack said, using Buffy's name for him.

Ianto only ducked his head with the slightest blush and hurried off to get everyone a cup.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Jack gave everyone a couple days off to recuperate. Martha stayed a short while to spend some time with Jack and Buffy, but soon UNIT wanted her back. Torchwood all went to a pub on her last evening with them to give her a going away party.

They all sat around a large booth, except for Ianto who was going to the bar to order. First he asked if they all just wanted a beer. Buffy was the only one to object.

"Beer and I don't mix well," she said to Ianto's stare and Jack's raised eyebrow. Ianto walked off while Gwen tried to get the conversation going.

"You don't drink beer?" Gwen said with a laugh. "You definitely aren't Welsh."

"Is there a story in all this?" Jack asked as if he already knew the answer.

"To paint a word picture, beer-drunk Buffy says, 'Tree pretty. Fire bad.'" There were chuckles around the booth.

"Looks like there's going to be a band playing here," Tosh observed.

"Oh god," Owen said and started muttering about bad music played by fat fingered idiots.

When Ianto returned the band was testing the sound of their instruments. Jack asked him, "What's the word on this band that's setting up?"

"They're American," Ianto answered while passing around all the drinks. "Supposedly they're not bad."

A few chords into the first song, Buffy's eyes widened. "Oh my god!"

"What?" Owen asked.

"That can't be…" Buffy turned and got up on her knees on the seat to get a better view of the band. "Oz! It's Oz!" She turned and sat back down. "Oh my god. It's Oz. Oz!"

"Who?" Owen asked.

"Apparently someone named Oz," Ianto said dryly.

"I take it you know him?" Jack said and Ianto gave a snort at the obviousness of the answer. Jack frowned and Ianto refrained from any more wise cracks on the subject.

"Back in Sunnydale, he was part of my Scooby gang."

"And he's in a band?" Tosh asked.

"Scooby gang?" Martha asked.

"I think it's some sort of reference to Scooby-Doo," Gwen answered but was just as confused.

"Oz is very cool." Buffy then turned her complete attention to the band.

Jack shrugged his shoulders when everyone looked to him, and then slowly conversations picked up. Martha was regaled with tales of Torchwood and the aliens they had faced. Jack naturally had to put in some rather suggestive remarks about "facing" aliens. And just as naturally everyone voiced their disgust at whatever image Jack conjured for them. When the band stopped Jack turned to Buffy only to find an empty seat.

Buffy had dashed across the pub and was squeezing the life out of the guitar player Jack could only assume was Oz.

"Buffy, it's good to see you, but it would be good to breathe too," Oz said to her.

"Oh, sorry. It's just so good to see you!" She gave him another quick hug.

"Likewise. I didn't think you'd leave Sunnydale, especially not for Giles-land."

"Things… happened."

"Yeah, I figured with the daisy-popping proportion of slayers. So you're here."

"Oh you know. With my job being less Chosen One I decided to get a corner on the alien fighting market."

"Torchwood?"

She should have been surprised, but it was so Oz to be all-knowing. "Wow. It has to be the worst kept secret in all of Great Britain."

"But par for your course."

"What brings you here? Just the band or…"

"They actually joined me here when I got us a few gigs. I was here to see some experts for my furry problem."

"So Warren Zevon was telling the truth. Huh."

"Yeah. Did you know the whole royal family were all werewolves?"

"No one is supposed to know that," Jack's voice said with dismay. The two friends turned to see the Captain standing behind them.

"Wait, the Queen and every…" Buffy let the thought trail off. "There's a story here, isn't there?"

Jack nodded and noticed a slight nervous air pervading Oz's usual nonchalance. "Captain Jack Harkness," Jack introduced himself with a smile. The flirting only increased the uneasiness.

"Stop that," Buffy said.

"I take it you're Oz," Jack said, giving Buffy only a brief scowl.

"And you're Torchwood."

"Buffy!"

"I didn't tell him!" Buffy argued. "It's not my fault you're the worst kept secret on this planet. And Oz is good with secrets."

Jack lifted an eyebrow. "Why don't you join us for a drink?"

"Thanks, but me and the guys have to book."

"We'll meet again, though, right?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah."

Buffy gave him one last bone-crushing hug and let him walk away.

"Not a talkative fellow, is he?" Jack observed. "Nervous too."

"Well, what do you expect?" Buffy mumbled about big government organisations. "You don't have to worry about him blabbing about the Royal Werewolves because he is one. A werewolf... of the unroyal variety. Please tell me Torchwood doesn't hunt and cage werewolves too."

"No, unless you count Buckingham Palace a cage."

"Not bad, but gilded gates still confine, no matter how pretty they are."

"I didn't take you for a philosopher," Martha said from behind them. They turned. "Wasn't eavesdropping, just overheard the last bit. Jack, thank you for a great evening. Everyone is heading home now, and I've got an early train to catch."

Jack hugged her. "Keep in touch. Let us know when the wedding is."

"It's a long ways away still, but I'll let you know. Goodbye, Buffy."

"Till next time," she replied with a hug.

* * *

_Oz! It's Oz! Ok, so I am way too giddy about the cameo return of one of the best characters on BtVS. More cameos might be in the works since this little bit was rather fun to write. It also stumped me for many months. Oz is a tricky one to fathom.  
_


	23. Bridezilla vs Rosemary's Baby

Rhys watched from the kitchen as Gwen paced in front of the sofa.

"It's no big deal, Gwen."

"No big deal!" she shouted at him. "Carrie is in hospital with her appendix and our wedding is in three days! I am down one bridesmaid!"

"Trina can do just fine…" Rhys started.

"No, no. It won't work. I planned for two bridesmaids, Rhys, two not one. It's all falling to pieces. The whole thing is going to turn out a catastrophe."

Rhys marched to her and put his hands on her shoulders to stop her pacing. "Hey, look at me. It's not a catastrophe; it's our wedding day. No matter what happens, no matter what problems might come up, it's going to be perfect. You know why? Because I will be marrying the most amazing woman in the entire world."

Gwen's eyes were wet. "I love you, Rhys Williams. I'm the one who's lucky to be marrying someone like you." She took a deep breath. "And you're right. It will all be fine."

"That's the spirit. Now, I don't half fancy some ice cream. What do you say?"

"We don't have any ice cream," Gwen answered.

"Then we'll just have to go get some," he said with a grin.

Laughing, Gwen grabbed her coat and followed Rhys out the door. They walked down the street arguing over which place to try. Rhys wanted to try a new place a few blocks away while Gwen thought they should just stick with the place round the corner. With a pouting lip and puppy eyes, Rhys won the argument.

On the way back to their flat, Gwen stopped suddenly.

"Did you hear that?" she asked and looked down the dark alley they stood next to.

Rhys turned his head a few times. "Hear what?"

"I don't…"

Gwen was interrupted by a roar as a weevil charged out of the alley towards them. Gwen pushed Rhys out of the way and reached for her gun. Unfortunately, she wasn't carrying a gun. Rhys pulled her and they started to run, but the weevil was fast. Gwen tripped and it looked like it was all over for her. Gwen closed her eyes and waited for the weevil's strike, but it never came. She opened her eyes as Rhys was helping her to her feet. A few metres away, Buffy was a blur as she fought with the weevil. It didn't take long until, with a sickening crack, the weevil fell dead to the pavement.

"You guys all right?" Buffy asked as if she had just met them on a leisurely stroll.

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine," Rhys answered. "Thanks for that."

"You saved our lives," Gwen said still shocked by the whole thing.

"Eh, part of my job description," Buffy said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"One in every generation and all that, yeah?" Rhys said with a slight laugh. Buffy rolled her eyes. Rhys paused a moment. "Buffy…" He stopped and looked at Gwen.

"What?" Gwen asked.

"Why not…" He tilted his head towards Buffy.

"Why not what?" Buffy asked.

"If it's okay with you," Rhys said to Gwen. "Might be nice in case anything _should_ happen."

Gwen caught on to his unsaid thought. She shook her head, but Rhys gave her the puppy eyes again. "Yeah, all right." She turned to Buffy. "Buffy, I'm short one bridesmaid and you did just save our lives…"

"And before with the giant space whale," Rhys added.

"Yes, and then," Gwen agreed. "It's short notice, I know, but would you be a bridesmaid?"

Buffy looked taken aback for a moment, but then she smiled. "Fully dreading what hideous gown I'll have to wear, I say yes."

"You are a lifesaver!" Rhys said. "In many more ways than one! See, Gwen, nothing will go wrong now."

"You did not just say that!" said Buffy with alarm.

"Oh Rhys!"

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Two days later, Buffy pushed her way through a crowded club to join Gwen and her hen party.

"Buffy!" Gwen shouted, obviously already affected by the alcohol. She introduced the other girls, but Buffy didn't expect to remember many of them.

"We were worried you wouldn't show," Trina shouted.

"Sorry, got stuck at work."

"Anything serious?" Gwen asked.

"Nope, over and done with."

"Gwen Cooper," a voice said from behind them and they turned as the man tossed his cap, "you're nicked."

"Oh no!" Gwen said as her eyes widened at the stripper. The girls cheered her on as Gwen's face battled between embarrassment and enjoyment.

The night was wilder than a typical night at the Bronze back in Sunnydale, but Buffy loved the familiar feeling of a night partying. Though they had never gotten close at work, Gwen was good at making Buffy feel like one of the group. After several rounds on the dance floor and even more from the bar, Gwen, Buffy, and Trina were in the bathroom for a break.

"This is such a bad idea," Gwen said with a laugh. "I'm getting married in like… what, what... thirteen hours! Oh, look at me! Hot."

"You're stunning, Gwen," Buffy said. "Rhys is the luckiest guy."

"Oh I know," Trina said with a wicked grin and turned to Buffy. "Have you heard about his cock?"

Buffy held back a giggle while Gwen's eyes widened.

"Hey!" Gwen said to Buffy. "What happened to your arm?"

Buffy looked at the bandage on her arm as if just remembering it was there. "Just a scratch. You should see the other guy."

Trina burst into another fit of wild laughter, and Buffy and Gwen exchanged smiles.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

The alarm bell buzzed like an angry bee. Buffy swung a hand at it; it fell to the floor in pieces.

"Oops," she mumbled into her pillow. She turned and sat up. With some difficulty she rose to her feet out of the bed. "Way too much to drink, Buffy."

Feeling oddly ill and heavy she looked down.

"What?"

She stared at her stomach. Correction—the watermelon that somehow had developed overnight and replaced her stomach. She rushed to her mobile but lurched due to the unfamiliar weight around her middle. She dialled the number and continued to stare at her stomach in the mirror.

"Buffy, do you have any idea what time it is?" Owen's cranky voice said.

"I need you to get over here _now_, Owen," she said with no small amount of panic in her voice.

"Is it your arm?" he asked.

"No, nuhuh, not that. Just come now," she replied.

Not ten minutes later Owen rushed into her flat holding a medical bag. "Holy mother of…" he exclaimed when he saw her still standing in her bedroom. Switching into doctor mode, "Why don't we take a look at you on the bed?"

"Now's not the time to try to get me into bed, Owen," Buffy snapped.

"No, but you'll be more comfortable if I examine you sitting down."

She capitulated and sat on her bed while he got out his equipment and started his examination.

"Buffy," he said when finishing, "you're pregnant. Almost full term."

"Pregnant?" Buffy repeated. "No, no way could that be happening. It might look like it, but this is not me pregnant."

Owen was about to argue when the front door opened and slammed shut.

"Buffy!" came Jack's voice. "What's happened?"

He barged into the bedroom and stopped short when he saw Buffy's stomach. "Oh."

"Jack, Owen says I'm pregnant."

"Oh, you think?" he replied.

"What? How? What with?"

"It's an exo-biological insemination," Owen said while looking at one of his tools.

"That alien last night," Jack explained.

"It never!" Buffy protested. "I haven't even had sex in… a really long time." Owen and Jack both stared at her. She frowned and headed out to the kitchen. She didn't see the look Owen gave Jack or how Jack rolled his eyes.

"It passed the eggs on in the bite," Jack explained. "Some species do that. A kind of sneaky way of keeping the bloodline going. Boy, would Darwin have a field day if he'd made it to space."

"Not really in the mood for science lectures, Jack," Buffy said. She opened a drawer to get a spoon and then reached in one of the cupboards for a jar of peanut butter. She silently thanked the Powers That Be that Xander and Anya sent it in a package of other American things as a house warming gift.

"Listen, Buffy," Owen said, "you are going to be fine. I promise, okay? If there was any biological incompatibility you would be dead." She only glared at him with a mouth full of peanut butter. "Well, true, temporarily dead and this wouldn't be happening. Not that it's a viable solution now. According to this scan you're carrying a non-sentient blastopheric mass."

"A what?"

"It's a kind of alien egg. But don't worry—I'm going to look after you, I promise. We've got procedures for this situation."

"I'm not the first? Are you saying this has happened before?"

"You've heard of immaculate conception, haven't you? Well…" Jack let the thought trail off.

"Right," Owen said, "we take you back to the hub. You lie back, I run a bio-xenic microtron, a couple of days off your feet, and you'll be right as rain."

"Days!" Buffy shouted. "Oh no. Not days. Hours. I've got hours until I have to be at Gwen's wedding."

"You're not going," Jack said.

"I'm a bridesmaid! I promised Gwen, and one has already backed out because of a stupid appendix. Are you going to say I suddenly have the same thing?"

"Listen, Buffy, you aren't carrying the Baby Jesus in there. Gwen will understand."

"Then ask her. I promised and until she says otherwise, I'm _keeping_ that promise."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Jack and Owen returned to the Hub with frowns on their faces.

"How is she?" Tosh asked.

"Which one?" Owen asked. "Bridezilla or the Virgin Mary? Cause they're both going on with the wedding as planned."

"Which is fine," Jack added, "as long as Buffy doesn't go into labour in the aisle. I don't think the happy couple want her giving birth to a razor-toothed monster that eats half their families."

"Could that happen?" Ianto asked.

"Well, look," Owen said, "the pregnancy's advanced and we're not familiar with the species."

"Which is why you, Owen," said Jack, "need to open up the guy with the teeth and make sure there's no surprises.

"I'm on it."

Jack turned to the other two. "Tosh, I need you to go to the wedding and try to talk some sense into those two. Ianto…"

"Jack?"

"Buffy's going to need a new bridesmaid's dress. Bigger. And Gwen's very particular on it matching the others."

"Buffy and I are about the same size," said Tosh. "Why don't I just fill in as bridesmaid and send Buffy back here?"

"Tosh, that is the best thing I've heard all day! I could kiss you! Ianto, cancel what I just said."

"I could go with her," Ianto said. "Help fit the dress. My father was a master tailor and I picked up on a few things."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You'll have to tell me more… But some other time. Get going."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Buffy walked around the hotel while waiting for Jack's promised solution for her dress. There had been some entertainment when the parents of the bride and groom arrived, the animosity only thinly veiled. Trina was going around with a camera taking pictures of anyone who would stand still long enough. But until the dress arrived there wasn't much to do.

She had made one round and was starting again from the lobby when a sharp pain cut across her abdomen. She had to steady herself at the front desk for a moment while the pain passed.

"Are you all right, luv?" said a male, Welsh voice.

"Peachy and working on a side of keen," she replied. She turned to look at the rather cow-faced blonde that addressed her. He looked dumb-struck for a moment before grinning.

"You with the wedding?"

"Friend of the bride," Buffy answered, hoping that the boy would leave her alone.

"Well, I'm Banana. I suppose you can tell why."

"You go brown and gooey and make great bread?"

"I'm actually the best man," he said proudly.

"Rhys is _sooo_ lucky."

"I get to check everything personally, right. Uh, the disco, cake, flowers, seating. So do you fancy a little drink later?"

A witty retort hanging on her lips, Buffy was interrupted by the entrance of Tosh and Ianto. "Excuse me," she said to Banana.

"So is that a no?" she heard while she asked Tosh and Ianto why they were there without any sign of a dress.

"Did Jack send you to babysit me? Really not necessary."

"No, and yes," said Tosh.

"Care to vague that up?" Buffy asked sarcastically.

"It's simple," Ianto said. "Tosh fills in as bridesmaid, you go back to the Hub and get that alien removed."

"Nuhuh," Buffy protested. "Tosh can take my place, but I'm here, things are fine, and I want to see Rhys and Gwen get married." Ianto opened his mouth, but Buffy cut him off. "See this? This is my Willow resolve face. I'm staying until the end of the wedding."

"We'll argue about it later," Tosh said. "First let's see how I fit in your dress."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"Dammit!" Jack said when Owen showed him the proteus gland. "I should have seen this before."

"That's it with shape-shifters, innit?" said Owen. "You never know what you're looking at."

"We have to get to Buffy before the mother does."

"But if we don't…" Owen held up a hand to stop Jack's angry protest. "_If_ we don't, she should be all right, yeah? Like you she'll be out for a few minutes and then back to her normal, living self."

"We can't be sure," Jack admitted. "I've never been dismembered and eaten. And why didn't her slayer powers prevent the egg from taking hold in the first place?"

"They could be the reason she's still alive and carrying it," Owen reasoned.

"Maybe, but we're not taking any risks."

"Right," said Owen as he grabbed some equipment and tossed it into his bag.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"You look beautiful, Tosh," Buffy said as she stepped back from pinning Tosh's hair in place.

"You think so?"

"If only Owen were here to see you," Buffy teased.

"Buffy, don't…"

Ianto burst into the room. "Owen just called. They're on their way and we need to get Buffy away from here."

"What is it? What's going on?" Buffy demanded.

"You killed the father, but now the mother is out to collect the baby."

"When you say collect…"

"Rip you apart like a lion with a gazelle."

Buffy gave Tosh a quick and light hug. "Wish Gwen and Rhys luck from me."

"Be safe, you two," Tosh said as they left.

They barely reached the stairs before the pain in Buffy's stomach started again. She cried out and doubled over. She lifted her head slightly and her eyes met the gaze of a woman at the foot of the stairs dressed in black.

"Oh god," Buffy moaned, "she's here."

"Where?" Ianto asked. Buffy pointed and the woman revealed her blackened fangs. "Right, we'll take the back stairs."

Grabbing her arm, Ianto helped Buffy to turn and run. They turned corners down the corridors hoping to lose the Nostrovite, but she always stayed only steps behind. Ianto caught site of a service elevator and pushed Buffy in. He pulled his gun and fired the clip into the snarling thing, but she only slowed for a moment. Getting into the lift, Ianto frantically pushed for the doors to close. Only just in time, the doors closed on the sight of a very angry alien.

Ianto pushed the down button and then the emergency stop after they travelled a few feet down.

Buffy fell to the floor clutching her stomach in agony.

"We have to get you out of here," Ianto insisted.

"And then what? A showdown at the O. K. Corral in the middle of the wedding? No, we keep it away from all that. We owe Rhys that much."

"Ok," Ianto agreed after a moment. "I'll call Jack."

He tapped him comm and waited for the answer.

"Ianto," Jack answered. "Tell us what's going on."

"We've found the Nostrovite, a woman in a black dress, but it's got Buffy and me hiding in a service lift."

"But you're both safe?"

"For now." Ianto looked as Buffy gave another cry of pain. "We need to get the thing out of Buffy now. She's in too much pain to run or fight."

"We're almost there."

"Jack, you should know that I fired all I had at that thing and she barely paused. It's going to take more than guns."

"Take care of Buffy, Ianto; we'll deal with the Nostrovite." The conversation ended.

"Eugh," Buffy moaned and got to her feet.

"You should stay down," said Ianto.

"No, the pain's leaving. Give me a sec and we can start running again—get that thing away from the wedding."

"But…"

"No." She pointed to her face.

"Resolve face?" he asked.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to argue with a hormonal slayer?"

"No, I must have missed that bit in primary school." He looked around the small space as he thought. "As soon as we move the lift she'll know."

"Right," Buffy agreed. "So we don't move it, we climb it."

"How?"

"Up there." She pointed to the ceiling. "There's some sort of emergency door we can climb through."

"That's only in the movies," Ianto said. "It won't open from this side; it isn't meant to."

"If I could get up there I could force it open. You don't happen to have a ladder in your jacket, do you?" He frowned at her. "Give me a boost?"

"Buffy, I'm not superman. And even your powers couldn't help you climb out while you're doing your whale impression."

"Then we take our chances and run."

"No, we stay and wait for Jack."

"No!" Facing defeat and hormones, Buffy started to cry. She turned away to hide her tears. "Stupid elevator!" She kicked the wall and screamed. "I just wanted to go to a wedding, and instead I get all Rosemary's-babied—alien, hell spawned hormones included."

"It's not just the hormones," Ianto said softly. "It's being stuck here not able to do anything. Jack _will_ save us. Surely you can trust your own father to…"

"It's not trusting him," she interrupted. "Or not not-trusting him. I'm the one that saves the day. I'm the hero. I don't rely on others because in the end I'm the only one with the power to stop the evil. The Chosen One."

"But you're not the only one anymore."

"But I was. For so long it was just me against all the powers of darkness. In my mind it still is. I'm the only slayer worrying about aliens. It's just me against demons and aliens and rifts and hellmouths in this world. No one knows how I feel! No one can."

"How can you live like that?"

"It's the way it is. My destiny."

They sat in silence.

"The last time I was trapped away from the team, I was in a cannibal's cellar with Tosh," Ianto said quietly. "I asked her if the risk was worth it, was giving our lives to save others really worth it. We may save the world, but who saves us? I never was more scared than I was then. I know it doesn't really compare to you, but…"

"But what?" she encouraged when he stopped.

"Maybe feeling scared and alone pulls us together. Means you're human."

Silence took over again.

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

"Where's the… why isn't it…" Jack ranted the half asked questions as he looked in the back of the SUV. "It's moments like this where I understand how much we need Ianto."

"Yeah, well instead of packing the SUV he's trapped in a lift with your daughter. Looks like we'll have to make do with this."

Jack looked at the large battle axe Owen pulled from the weapons chest Buffy left in the SUV.

"She's never going to let me hear the end of this."

HXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXHXH

Gwen swayed with her father in the traditional father-daughter dance. Rhys was dancing with Brenda. Gwen hoped Brenda wasn't giving Rhys too much grief. That woman and her nagging. She was probably demanding to know when she could expect grandchildren. As Gwen and her father turned another couple dancing caught Gwen's eye. She missed a step and her foot landed on her father's shoe.

"You all right, duckling?"

"Yeah, Dad, just a bit clumsy."

"We'll put it down to the excitement of the day. How does it feel to be married?"

Gwen smiled. "Bloody wonderful, that's how I feel today."

The song ended and Gwen sought out Rhys at the punch bowl.

"Watch out," he said. "Banana's put a bit more alcohol than punch in here. But from what I've heard your Torchwood was up to, it's well deserved. You can tell Jack I'm grateful they kept it clear of us. Though, was Buffy pregnant earlier?"

"Alien egg thing. It happens… apparently. I'm just glad Owen got that awful little machine to work. Did you see her dancing with Jack just now?"

"Well it was the father-daughter dance," Rhys said.

"And that means what?" Gwen was confused by his tone; he seemed to think the whole thing obviously natural.

"He's her father."

"What?"

"You didn't know?"

"No! No I didn't. How do you know?"

"She told me. Nice girl, Buffy. Now come dance with me. And if Jack tries to cut in, I won't let him. I'll punch him in the stomach first. Or kick his shin. You're my woman now, and today he can't have you."

"Don't be such a caveman, Rhys Williams," she said, but she was smiling at his display of testosterone anyways.

* * *

_As I have no idea what you think about the changes I'm making to plot/characters, I welcome feedback and reviews.  
_


End file.
